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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
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Abolish Rent summary
Tracy Rosenthal, Leonardo Vilchis
How Tenants Can End the Housing Crisis
17 mins
Brief summary
Abolish Rent examines the socio-economic impacts of the rent system, advocating for a transformative approach to housing. Rosenthal and Vilchis argue for radical changes to promote equitable access to housing resources.
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Abolish Rent
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The housing system works just fine (for landlords)
Here’s a capitalist fairytale: rental housing is a benevolent service provided by landlords, who offer secure and well-maintained homes while tenants make informed, unconstrained choices about where to live. The tenant's income easily covers the cost of rent, and, eventually, they save enough to buy a home. In the meantime, landlords earn a modest, fair profit.
Now, here’s the disturbing reality: in the US, a typical two-bedroom apartment requires four full-time minimum wage jobs just to pay the rent. There are 100 million tenants across the country, and half spend more than a third of their income on rent, with a quarter spending over half. In Los Angeles, 600,000 people devote 90 percent of their income to keeping a roof over their heads. Each night, nearly three-quarters of a million people in the US are unhoused, and landlords file seven eviction notices per minute.
This isn’t a fairytale gone wrong. It’s a system functioning exactly as designed. In the 2010s alone, US landlords made over $4.5 trillion from their tenants. The crisis isn’t about a lack of housing, but about a tenant crisis – a system where tenants' lives are squeezed, displaced, and destabilized. Power in this system comes from controlling wealth extraction and physical coercion. Landlords hold both.
Real estate profits from privatizing land, a common resource, and exploiting housing, a fundamental human need. Rent is passive income for landlords, sustained by the hard labor of tenants. And while we may think of homeownership as private, even privately owned homes rely on public investments and infrastructure to remain livable.
Tenants, not landlords, create the vibrant communities we love – like Black tenants in 1920s Harlem and queer tenants in 1960s Castro. Yet the upward transfer of rent perpetuates segregation and inequality. Housing justice begins by recognizing tenants as the creators and defenders of their communities.
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What is Abolish Rent about?
Abolish Rent (2024) examines the housing crisis from the perspective of those most affected by exploitative rent practices, offering a sharp critique of the current system. It highlights powerful stories of resistance from poor and working-class tenants, showing how collective action can transform both housing and cities and ultimately envisions a revolutionary tenant movement that fights for housing as a fundamental right.
Who should read Abolish Rent?
- Tenants who want to organize and fight back against exploitative housing conditions
- Urban planners and policy makers who want insight into the tenant crisis
- Anyone who thinks safe, stable housing should be a basic human right
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