Moving Under Pressure: Household Shocks, Constraints, and Residential Im/mobility

• In Event: Housing Policy, Residential Mobility, and Inequality: New Perspectives on Residential Change

Abstract

How do residential moves shape the reproduction of urban inequality? Past research argues that sudden, reactive moves channel disadvantaged families to poor residential outcomes (DeLuca and Jang-Trettien, 2020). Unlike voluntary moves, reactive moves are prompted by shocks outside of a household’s control, like poor maintenance, rent increases, eviction, and violence. With little time and few resources, disadvantaged movers move to “sure bet” housing opportunities that provide immediate shelter, regardless of their long-term residential goals (Harvey et al., 2020). As disadvantaged families are more likely to experience these unwanted moves, reactive mobility reproduces urban stratification.

However, given the increasing costs of rental housing, many disadvantaged families cannot afford to move even as they are exposed to significant hazards. Some reactive mobility pressures may force tenants out (e.g., eviction). Yet it is not clear that other pressures (e.g., neighborhood violence) mechanically lead to moves. In this paper, I argue that expanding this framework to include renters’ immobility outcomes could better link residential mobility and immobility processes to inequalities in residential contexts. To do so, I analyze 131 semi-structured interviews conducted with low and middle-income, Latina/o and non-Hispanic white renters living in Los Angeles. This analysis yields three key findings.

First, I find that for low-income voluntary movers, substantial time without resources is not sufficient to avoid moves to poor conditions. Many low-income families struggle to identify feasible housing options, even after months of searching. In contrast, middle-income families execute moves quickly and typically achieve their desired residential outcomes. Second, I find that middle-income families frequently move due to reactive mobility pressures, while low-income families lack the resources required to “react” to rent increases, neighborhood violence, or poor unit conditions. Finally, I find that reactive moves often yield housing upgrades for middle-income families, while producing lateral or downward outcomes for low-income families. Due to legal-status related exclusions, low-income Latina/o renters, in particular, struggle to avoid poor residential outcomes.

Based on these findings, I propose a revised framework that situates reactive mobility as one of several responses to household shocks. Then, I use this framework to show how experiencing these moves or non-moves shapes unequal exposure to environmental conditions that can threaten family wellbeing. Taken together, this revised framework offers a more comprehensive understanding of how residential im/mobility processes generate urban inequality: through unequal exposure to mobility pressures, as well as unequal responses to these shocks.

Author

• Steven Schmidt, Boston University
  Presenting Author