"The Landlord Treads on Them, so Everything's Fine": Exploitation and Forced Mobility in Substandard Private Rental Housing in Czechia
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: This study explores the representation of the private landlords' practices that may contribute to housing insecurity and forced mobility in Czech segregated areas. THEORETICAL BASE: Following debate on the "poverty business", the study uses literature on Roma marginalization, sociology of eviction and housing studies.
METHODS: The thematic analysis of 167 documents published mainly by the Agency of Social Inclusion was conducted. OUTCOMES: The landlords' practices are analyzed in four areas: overcharging rent and other payments, tenancy contracts, disinvestment, and coercion.
Their relation to housing security and eviction is pointed out. SOCIAL WORK IMPLICATIONS: Social workers shall continue to embrace the issue of exploitative practices in private rental housing and use social work methods to reduce the power asymmetry in the tenant-landlord relationships, prevent eviction, and improve rental and housing conditions.
Tenant stigmatization should be countered by exposing the agency of other actors and structural factors that co-produce housing insecurity and forced mobility.