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作者

来源

CITY & COMMUNITY,Vol.17,Issue3,P.658-674

语言

英文

关键字

CHRONIC NUISANCE LAWS; DOMESTIC VIOLENCE; CITY; INSURANCE; POVERTY; RENTERS; RULES

作者单位

[Greif, Meredith] Johns Hopkins Univ, Baltimore, MD 21218 USA. Greif, M (reprint author), Johns Hopkins Univ, Dept Sociol, 3400 N Charles St, Baltimore, MD 21218 USA. E-Mail: mgreif1@jhu.edu

摘要

This paper explores hidden ways by which cities may inadvertently undermine access to decent, stable, affordable housingespecially for vulnerable renter householdsthrough regulations that sanction landlords for tenant activities on their property. In-depth semistructured interviews and ethnographic observations with 57 small- and medium-sized landlords in Cleveland, followed over 28 months, show that perceptions of risk, flowing specifically from nuisance and water regulations that rendered landlords accountable for tenant activities over which they perceived little control, were common. To manage perceived precarity, landlords reported measures that undermined tenants' housing securityincluding excessive screening, hassling, elevated rent amounts, proclivity to evict, and divestment from the lower end of the housing market whose stock continues to dwindle across many cities. City regulationsmeant to bolster housing security, community vitality, and infrastructureappear to be understudied factors that paradoxically reinforce problems of housing insecurity and community decline many vulnerable tenants, and cities, continue to face.