Tony Samara
Tony Roshan Samara is the Program Director of Land Use and Housing at Urban Habitat, and also serves on the national steering committee of the Right to the City Alliance. He runs the Cities and Globalization Twitter account @CGWG2 and most of his publications are available at Academia.
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Over the past few decades, poverty has been growing much faster in smaller cities and suburbs, while inner-cities are increasingly home to a concentrated affluent minority.
Since November, the number of Americans who recognize the importance of local organizing has grown dramatically, and the tenant movement has been ahead of the curve in mobilizing for change from the ground up.
The rise of the renter nation is not an isolated phenomenon; it results from a perfect storm of surging housing demand, a severe shortage of affordable rental units, declining or stagnant wages, and housing policy that favors higher income groups.