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Solving The Rental Affordability Crisis
Nearly half of American renters pay more than 30% of their income on housing. This chapter looks at what's actually working — from Burlington, Vermont to Berlin.
From Idea to Action
Where the last chapter tackled homeownership, this one is about rent specifically — why nearly half of American renters exceed the recommended 30%-of-income threshold, and what real programs are doing about it.
Who's Actually Driving Rents Up
Beyond the basic supply shortage, the chapter names a specific, less-discussed factor: large institutional investors buying up single-family homes and apartment portfolios, then pushing aggressive rent increases and new fee structures to maximize shareholder returns. Add short-term rental platforms pulling units out of the long-term market entirely, and you get upward pressure that has nothing to do with construction costs or zoning.
Germany's Rent Brake
Germany doesn’t ban rent increases — it limits how much a landlord can raise rent when re-leasing a unit in a tight market. Rent growth still happens, but the dramatic spikes that push people out of their homes overnight don’t.
Real Programs, Real Names
The Champlain Housing Trust in Burlington, Vermont manages over 2,000 permanently affordable rental units tied to tenant income. Massachusetts’ Rental Voucher Program solves the “cliff effect,” where a small raise can knock a family out of eligibility for federal help entirely, by tiering assistance instead of cutting it off sharply. Preservation of Affordable Housing, based in Boston, has rescued thousands of at-risk affordable apartments nationwide by buying properties right before their subsidies expire.
The Program Everyone's Heard Of, Underfunded
Section 8 (the Housing Choice Voucher program) helps about 2.2 million households — but funding only covers roughly 1 in 4 eligible households, with waiting lists running years long in many cities. It’s not a broken idea; it’s an underfunded one.