Delaying Displacement: How Vulnerability Drives Tenant Strategies to Avoid Housing Loss after Tenant Rights Education

This article uses the unique case of low-income renters who have participated in tenant rights education to understand how an increased understanding of their rights and responsibilities shaped tenant strategies for addressing destabilizing housing conditions. We find that tenants varied in their responses with some demanding repairs or rent reductions and others resigning themselves to their housing situations. This variation was not random: the strategies tenants adopted after rights education reflect social vulnerabilities, particularly the formality of rental arrangements and legal status to live in the United States. Tenants incorporated what they learned into their plans for next steps which helped some avoid, or at least delay, displacement in the short term and improved their capacity to advocate for repairs. However, tenants with multiple social vulnerabilities or whose situations fall in legal gray areas were resigned to their situations. They avoided displacement but that avoidance came at the cost of requesting repairs or contesting unfair rent increases. A subset of tenants felt no need to alter how they approached housing issues but planned to use the information in the future, either for themselves or others in their community. Tenant rights education influences strategizing for low-income renters in positive ways, but to truly disrupt housing precarity, rights education must be combined with ongoing legal support and policies that reduce rent burdens.