The Housing Crisis
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Rents are increasing tenfold, but why? Is there a way to make housing more affordable and accessible?
In the U.S, the top 1% are buying homes as investments while the bottom 50% are struggling just to rent one. Housing is widely recognised as a human right under international law, yet in recent times, homes have increasingly been treated as ways to make money- particularly by large corporations and wealthy landlords. This shift turned shelter into a commodity, driving up rent, displacing tenants and further deepening the inequality between those who can “afford” housing and those who can’t. As of 2023, a U.S. worker earning minimum wage had to work 104 hours a week just to afford a small two-bedroom rental, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Post-pandemic, rents and house prices have soared far faster than wages. In fact, according to Pew Research, from 1965 to 2022, home prices grew by 118% adjusted for inflation while incomes grew by only 15%. This trend has been partly driven by a rise in Wall Street-backed firms that are buying single-family homes- inflating prices and rents. According to the Federal Reserve data, investors purchased one in every seven homes sold in the U.S. in 2021- with institutional landlords raising rents by double-digit percentages and filing more evictions than smaller landlords. Turning housing from shelter to an asset that brings in shareholder returns.
Behind the numbers are real people—families skipping meals to pay rent, young workers giving up on ever owning a home, and parents living with the stress of not knowing if they'll be evicted next month. This rise in housing problems hits low-income families and racial minorities the hardest. Hurting them not only financially- but also their mental health, job stability, and future opportunities. On top of that, the Harvard Joint Center found that more than 21 million renter households spent over 30% of their income on rent. With people spending high amounts of their income just to stay housed, there’s little left for healthcare, education, savings, and other necessities. And the problem runs deeper; investors are buying up cheaper homes, especially in lower-income neighborhoods, pushing out first-time buyers and making it harder for those already excluded to ever catch up.
So is this situation completely out of hand?
No.
This can be controlled by introducing policy ideas, reforms or global comparisions. Introducing:
stronger rent controls
more public/social affordable housing construction
limiting corporate bulk-buying of residential properties.
One good example of successful policies is the Vienna housing model. Almost 60% of Vienna’s population lives in subsidised or rent-controlled housing while the city itself owns more than 220,000 municipal apartments. Most importantly, Vienna doesn’t sell public land to private developers- instead, it leases land to non-profit developers under strict affordability conditions. They treat housing as a universal need rather than means to make a return on an investment or a market product. Cost-rent pricing is used, basing the level rent on the costs of construction and maintenance- not market speculation and reducing the scope of speculative investment. This is amplified through indefinite contracts and restrictions on evictions and sudden rent hikes. The Vienna model shows that equitable housing is not just possible, but sustainable.
While the U.S. housing crisis is especially visible, countries across the world are grappling with similar dynamics- where financial speculation and housing insecurity grow side by side. But a home is more than a roof- it's safety, pride, and a chance for a better life. When access to shelter depends on who can outbid whom, inequality wins. But with smart policy and structural change, it doesn’t have to.