Constructing Renters as a Threat to Neighbourhood Safety

The physical and social organization of the urban environment plays a central role in the formation of individual perceptions of crime. This paper examines how the presence of rental housing is constructed as a risk to neighbourhood safety by urban homeowners. The presence of the ideology of homeownership fosters a social context in which renters are constructed as disinvested and irresponsible individuals. As a result, renters are perceived to pose both an indirect and direct threat to the safety of a neighbourhood. Data from 23 semi-structured interviews with urban homeowners are used to illustrate this process. The paper concludes by considering how these perceptions adversely affect tenants and perpetuate spatial patterns of inequality.