The Disruption of Trust and Trust Networks: Tracing Residents’ Struggles in the Housing Market

Abstract

This chapter focuses on three common stressors in the housing market: affordability, adequacy, and displacement. They represent disruptions in the housing market that undermine people’s experience of home and consequently their trust relations in and around the home. As housing becomes increasingly unaffordable, residents fear that they will not be able to keep pace with rising rents and housing costs. At the same time, the quality of housing is poor, and those who can no longer afford to live in the newly built and well-maintained apartments in the city center are bound to inadequate and grossly substandard housing. Most prevalently, however, this is felt in communities that battle with displacement. Many people fear displacements—or have already experienced displacement—either moving because of growing financial pressure or because they were asked to leave, formally evicted, or foreclosed on. The loss of home equals the loss of a familiar, trusted environment as much as it is the loss of a trust network of friends and neighbors. This chapter focuses on residents’ experiences, highlighting that home is not only about physical residence but also about the trust networks that have developed around it.