The Age of the Renter Tony Roshan Samara Not all Americans own their home. In fact, more and more of them rent it. More and more of them also end up paying a disproportionate amount of their income for shelter. Despite a system largely biased in favor of homeowners and widespread predatory practice against tenants, Tony Roshan Samara sees recent renters’ mobilizations as an encouraging sign for many poor families throughout the USA. The recession of 2004–2009 ushered in an era of sustained, structural inequality that is fundamentally reshaping the housing landscape in the United States. Increases in homeownership rates made during the two-decade housing bubble evaporated when the market crashed, driving millions of former owners into the rental market. Many will remain there, joining the ranks of an emerging renter class. Renters now make up more than one third of all households across the country with far higher proportions in urban areas, and within low-income communities and communities of color, where they are often majorities (Joint Center on Housing Studies 2013). Figure 1. Renter nation Source: map excerpted from Rise of the Renter Nation: Solutions to the Housing Affordability Crisis , a report by the Homes for All campaign of the Right to the City alliance, June 2014, p. 7. 1