People under 35 have contributed to the housing crisis as we now know it, but they’re also set up to suffer from it. In the decade since the financial crash, renters under 35 have been responsible for some of the largest shares of growing demand in the rental market, and young people remain renters for longer than in previous generations. Some continue renting because city life is now in vogue. But many others rent because they’re grappling with stagnant wages, high healthcare costs, and fewer options to build wealth. Long after we’ve forgotten the names of the bank executives who caused the financial crash, the people forced to take out loans for school, in part because of collapsed housing prices, live with $1.52 trillion in student debt.Housing is a fundamental human need. Yet, in America, housing is treated as a commodity. With housing commodified, the perpetrators of racial capitalism have the perfect scenario to extract value from poor people and people of color while further dispossessing them of power. Safe, accessible housing remains a luxury for the privileged few—by design."A person working full-time, paid minimum wage, cannot afford a two-bedroom apartment in any county in the country. In all but six states, even if minimum wage were $15, people would still have to work well over 40 hours a week to afford rent."
Since then, Lê has been a renter. Lê stayed in San Jose with an abusive partner for a while because, as they put it, “I knew I just had to sacrifice some things to have a place to stay.” Now Lê lives in an overcrowded house. Several of their friends in Santa Cruz have been evicted and forced to live in cars or out of tents as the University of California Santa Cruz consistently over-enrolls and rents soar. “It’s hard to exist when you feel like you’re constantly fighting to keep a roof over your head.”"In an ever-changing global economy, and a country too focused on the president’s salacious scandals (including his dealings in real estate) to have a real conversation about rent, young people’s futures hinge on housing: what they will spend on it and the decisions they will or won’t get to make as a result."