Photo of Chateau Sunnyside Apartments located in Clovis, Fresno (Image | Courtesy of Joseph Joyce)
By Joseph Joyce
Renting in the United States, to some, is a cost-efficient way to save up for a house. For others it is the only way they can afford to put a roof over their heads. For Trevor Roufs, an Instacart employee with multiple different businesses that range from being a psychic medium to starting a dating app, it’s everything.
“There was a lot of times where you would have to worry about actually being able to make the bills each month,” Roufs said. “Especially with an unreliable roommate, so it got a little bit harder and harder. It stressed me out more than I had ever been stressed out in my entire life.”
Roufs enjoyed living in his own place and the sense of independence it brought for him. However, having to pay for a conservice bill that included utilities and other services that were not part of base rent made things difficult.
In 2022, a survey was conducted by SmartAsset, a website that helps connect consumers with financial advisors, to discover what cities were the hardest to rent in. What they found is that Fresno ranked in 18th place for the most cost burdened city for renters in the United States, sitting at 29 percent.
As the cost of rent continues to rise, the payout of wages does not rise to meet it. This, in turn, leads to renters getting evicted from their homes or having to live from paycheck to paycheck.
Who’s Most Affected
While renting is an issue that affects all demographics of people, the most affected are typically Blacks and Hispanics. According to a Harvard University report about rental housing released in 2022, nearly a quarter of Black renters and 19 percent of Hispanic renters struggle with keeping up on rent payments in the United States.
The report goes into detail talking about how this distinction in housing can be linked to the labor market.
“This disparity reflects long-term discrimination in labor markets that has consigned many households of color to low-wage jobs in the service industry-the sector that suffered the most drastic job cuts over the past two years,” said the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies in their report about America’s 2022 Rental Housing.
Dr. Amber Crowell is an associate professor of Sociology at Fresno State whose research focuses on social inequality and residential segregation in rental housing. She believes this inequality is in part due to white families having an easier time when it comes to buying and affording a home compared to people of color.
“Home ownership for white households has always been much higher than home ownership for Black and Latinx households,” Crowell said. “That’s because, historically, people of color were shut out of owning homes or the homes that they did own were so devalued they really couldn’t build much wealth off them.”
Challenges for Renters
Renters that are forced to pay a large portion of their income on rent can find immense adversity when attempting to afford other necessities such as food and utilities.
Roufs discussed how paying most of his income to rent affected his daily living habits.
“There was a period where I was just eating ramen. Only Ramen because it was like four bucks at the store and it would feed me for at least five, six days at a time,” Roufs said. “I really wasn’t eating anything at all. Never was going out—just really—just dull because I could never afford to do anything ‘cause all my money had to be saved for bills.”
While affording to live in a rental can be a struggle, another big problem is finding a suitable place to begin with. Renters often go on listing websites to find homes and apartments to move into. While photos can make a place look nice. it is better to see these places in person before signing a lease.
Evan Prater is a Mass Communication Broadcast Journalist student at Fresno State. When he was attending West Hills Community college for his associates, he rented in Collinga for at least half a year. During this time, he gained experience as a renter on what to look for when finding a place to live.
“Never go off just the pictures on the website because they always make them look nice,” Prater said. “Actually go and tour the place because there’s so many times the pictures are not what they are in reality.”
Both the high cost of renting and finding a suitable place to live can have an affect on the mental health and well being of renters. Roufs recalled how much of an effect all these stresses personally had on him.
“Definitely a strain on the mental health, really caused a lot of depression issues that lasted even long after I was done renting that apartment,” Roufs said. “It really did have a long lasting effect on my mental health and caused a pretty major depression I’d say. Got to a lot of points where I wasn’t going out of the house anymore cause I could never afford to.”
Housing Insecurity
As the price of housing continues to rise, so does the price of renting. Meanwhile, the payout of wages remains the same and does little to accommodate the rising cost of rent.
According to a press release made by S&P Dow Jones Indices, in 2021 the price of owning a home in a 1-year change went up by 10 percent in all major metropolitan areas. Increases like this leads to landlords increasing the amount of rent per month to cover the higher costs of paying for and maintaining the property.
Dr. Andres Jauregui is a professor of Finance and Real Estate at Fresno State whose research focuses on real estate economics and finance. He has helped to publish papers on Housing Policy Debate and Journal of Housing Research. He believes that without government intervention to help protect renters there isn’t much that can be done to stop landlords from evicting low income with higher income renters.
“If you don’t pay your- the rent right, because your salary is not, you know, keeping up with inflation—let’s say then your, your options are either to get another job, get more money, find a better job,” Jauregui said. “If you fall behind in your rent, your landlord is gonna start—most likely—start an eviction process and- which will end up ultimately in you on the streets. If you can find anything else, you know, then there is- there is a path towards homelessness and that’s one of the things that people, or government, is trying to, or some organizations, are trying to address.”
With how expensive rent was for Roufs, he recalls having to work for side gigs such as Instacart, a grocery service where a customer can order groceries via an app and have it delivered straight to their doors. He was a “personal shopper,” someone who delivers the groceries to the customer.
“After that first year, it went up about a hundred dollars on the main lease, on the main rent, the base rent itself,” Roufs said. “Again, I think the real challenge was all the extras, the conservice, the electricity, ‘cause that was just going up and up and up every single month; it would go up higher and with Instacart again it’s not steady pay, so it was the same or even worse at times honestly. It was really stressful—there were times I had to go to other people to help with my bills. Not my proudest moment, but just doing what I had to, to get by.”
Regardless of all the hardships Roufs has had to endure, he would still recommend renting if a person can find a good deal.
“It’s about thinking outside the box, so if you can find a place that is cheaper and affordable, at least decently, I’d say go for it,” Roufs said. “Find a great deal on an apartment, save up for a home. Difficult challenge, but if you can do it, great.”
Renting is an ever-growing issue that affects millions of citizens all across the United States. It is important that more attention be brought to this topic as more and more people consider renting as an alternative to home buying.
Flourishing Fresno 