The Tenant Class

by Ricardo Tranjan

In this trailblazing manifesto, political economist Ricardo Tranjan places tenants and landlords on either side of the class divide that splits North American society.

What if there is no housing crisis, but instead a housing market working exactly as intended? What if rent hikes and eviction notices aren’t the work of the invisible hand of the market, but of a parasitic elite systematically funneling wealth away from working-class families? With clarity and precision, Tranjan breaks down pervasive myths about renters, mom-and-pop landlords, and housing affordability. In a society where home ownership is seen as the most important hallmark of a successful life, Tranjan refuses to absolve the landlords and governments that reap massive profits from the status quo.

The tenant class must face powerful systems of disinformation and exploitation to secure decent homes and fair rent. Drawing upon a long, inspiring history of collective action in Canada, Tranjan argues that organized tenants have the power to fight back.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Canada, Urbanism, Economics, History, Urban Planning

135 pages, Paperback

Published May 16, 2023

About the author

I'm a political economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a progressive think tank.

Previously, I managed the City of Toronto Poverty Reduction Strategy Office and briefly taught at universities in Ontario and Québec.

My academic work focused on Brazil, my native country, leading to my first (scholarly) book, Participatory Democracy in Brazil: Socioeconomic and Political Origins (2015).

Currently, my research focuses on Canadian social policy, especially housing. My second (non-academic) book, The Tenant Class (2023), has become a national bestseller.

I regularly write for online magazines and news outlets, especially the The Toronto Star.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Marxist, class-based analysis of both the state of, and the history of, the "housing crisis" in Canada. The quotations around housing crisis are necessary, as for Tranjan, all elements of the housing crisis - perpetually rising rents and market prices; declining government intervention (social housing) into housing supply; new forms of, and increasing instances of, evictions such as 'renovictions' and 'demovictions;' increasing homelessness and dispossession - are determinate outcomes of market-based housing provisions which are strictly to the detriment of tenants and strictly to the benefit of homeowners, real estate agencies, property and land developers, and most of all, landlords. The housing crisis is not a crisis, it is programmatic and intended. It is a form class warfare.

Two highlights of the book are first, the historical persistence of the narrative of the housing crisis in Canada; and second, the historical organization and agitation of tenant unions, varied in focus and political programming, across Canada in the past and present.

The narrative of the housing crisis grounds The Tenant Class's thesis of the housing crisis being a feature of the capitalist provision of housing. It allows for the clear comparison of policy responses to the housing crisis in the past - urban renewal, social housing construction, restrictions on absentee ownership (in one rare case in P.E.I.) - versus those of the present, which amount to nothing more than trickle-down, supply-side economics which benefits real estate developers and investors. Build, build, build. If anything is lacking from The Tenant Class it is a well-researched takedown of this current policy response rooted in economic orthodoxy. If your framework postulates that a) supply creates its own demand; and b) a sufficient supply level will reduce prices, then there is a significant contradiction to resolve. There are, at least, references to historical policy analyses which argue against the market orthodoxy.

[K]eeping units off the market is the only way to protect low-rent housing… there is nothing new in this observation.

[I]t would be foolish to imagine that the combined effect of all the known economies in production would be sufficient to invalidate the main conclusion at which we have arrived, namely that the economic market cannot by itself fulfill the housing needs of the Canadian people.

The focus on the history of tenant organizing occupies the final quarter of the book with specific examples of tenant union advocacy and agitation in the face of eviction, dispossession, and in one fascinating case in 1970s Montreal, authoritarianism. If anything, the richness and variation of the three tenant struggles examined closely leave the reader begging for more, such is the historical relevance of these cases to the book's central argument. The weight put on tenant organizing and the final chapter's call to pick a side gives this book a manifesto-like quality. It is a reasoned call for an intellectual and political struggle and spurs the imagination on the limits of the possible and how high it can be.

The manifesto-like quality of the book restricts its scope and leaves room for gaps to be filled, of which I have mentioned two: a structured dismantling of supply-side-economics-infected policy advocacy, and a more thorough look at tenant-landlord struggle. One would need to look elsewhere, in completely different literatures for analyses of each. On the second, Matthew Desmond's Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City , which is cited in the book, is a brilliant ethnography and examination of the utter immiseration of tenants, where brief insights into the history of landlord and tenant opposition in Milwaukee and other parts of the United States are complemented by an incredibly rich and specific recounting of poverty and conflict.

[Donald · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was pretty good. It's a short book that sketches out the place of renters in Canada, some of the myths of the 'housing debate' and a few of the ways that people fight back. The book quickly dismisses the standard parameters that policy experts and journalists use to judge rental markets, which makes it somewhat diagonal to those mainstream debates rather than a full reply. Instead, the basic idea is that you can't call it a 'housing crisis' if it's been going on for so long and if tenants are not simply all trying to scrounge for that big down payment. I think the book does its job of helping orient newer housing activists to the sorts of arguments they will encounter. And it's short enough that, say, an average person doesn't have to commit to a big tome to get the point.

That said, I don't know if I actually buy the idea that a 'housing crisis' is the wrong frame. Using a political economy framework and centering class struggle is right, I agree, but the book treats owner-occupied housing as essentially an alien world for well-off people. Which it sort of is, but if we're thinking radically, removing profit from rental housing is obviously going to have a large effect on how we think about typical middle-class homeowners and the 'property ladder'. But the more you broaden the discussion, the closer it gets to enemy territory of policy solutions, and the harder it is to keep this tenant-organizing focus. Which is fine, that's why I'll read on.

[Chelsea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate to give this a bad review because I was truly so excited to see a book on landlord and tenant issues/the housing crisis.

I was disappointed to find that this is a very cursory look at a very complicated issue. When I picked up this book I had expected to read more about individual tenants stories or a more nuanced exploration of how systemic barriers intersect to exacerbate housing insecurity.

While ‘The Tenant Class’ is touted as a provocative book, the revelation that landlords are exploiting tenants is not a new one, especially for those with lived experience.

We see a glimpse of something revelatory in the last chapter where Tranjan refers to more overarching and radical changes like the transition of housing from the private market to the public market. I truly wish this was explored in more depth.

Altogether, if you are coming to this book with absolutely no context or knowledge of the current housing crisis and rental rights issues, this might be informative, but for anyone who is aware of the situation or has actually lived through this, it will only reiterate the discouraging truths you already know.

On a more positive note, it is great to see how tenant initiatives and coalitions are effecting change from a grass-roots level and certainly an important (and hopeful) aspect of the issue.

This conversation is timely and deeply necessary. Be it for tenants who might not be fully aware of the extent of their rights and how to go about exercising them or for actors with the political power to create vital systemic change. Unfortunately, it might not reach the people profiting from this industry–those who need to hear it most.

Overall, I commend Tranjan for contributing to the discourse on this topic. I just wish it put more faces to the issue and delved deeper into the multitude of barriers to tenants realizing their rights (such as the unnecessary bureaucracy of the landlord and tenant board, the ways in which landlords circumvent proper procedural steps, and the personal consequences tenants face as a result).

[James Adair · Rating 5 out of 5]

What if there isn’t a housing crisis? What if everything happening with housing markets isn’t a mistake of a fluke but instead a natural consequence of a system designed to extract profit out of tenants, a system working as intended. That’s the question Ricardo Tranjan asks and answers in this short, but incredibly detailed manifesto on housing and rentals in Canada. A repudiation of the accepted dogma around housing that simply building more supply will fix the issue, instead proposing a mass movement by tenants for tenants that focusses on creating public not-for-profit housing, ending evictions, lowering rents, and reframing the debate between two classes: tenant, and landlords.

[hilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was Very Good. really appreciated the clear eyed look at the so called housing crisis. I wish he had given us a bit more re step by step tactics of tenant organizing but maybe that will come in the next book. 5/5

[Keegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short but dense. Reframes the conversation around for-profit housing and discusses tenant class political action. Anti-landlord, anti-colonialism, anti-capitalist.

[Chelsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

i already sort of knew a lot of this in my soul, but it was great to have figures and data and research to back it up

[Elyse · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 everybody should read !!

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

An argument that market rental housing can only exploit the less well off. I agree with the point but would have liked much more depth and nuance to the analysis. A few times, it felt like a story was started, about a specific battle or resistance against particularly egregious landlords, only for the thread to be dropped with a too-brief summary and generalization.

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

So relevant, not just for Canadians but can also be applied to the UK (and probs many other places). Good intro on tenant organising ‼️

We are not in a housing crisis ❗the solution is not to build more houses ❗

Wish the data on who landlords are was more specific?? Sounds like I'm going to hunt them down or something but... well maybe. But good point on how the media portrays landlords as "mom n pop" landlords which I've definitely been made to think - although I don't know how and can't think of examples of being told this?? Weird
Anyhoo

If anyone knows good books on tenant organising and organising in general lmk 🙏🏻

[Scrungle Gungle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tranjan does a great job at detailing a history of tenant activism throughout Canada’s legacy - often giving each organization the ability to speak for itself with their records of successes and failures in organizing.

The usefulness of this book lies directly in the data presented. I found that the arguments were not particularly new (especially given Tranjan’s admittance of similarity between tenant struggles and class struggle, Marxist theory, and indigenous landback) but at the very least, this work is great as an introduction to those looking for a starting point in the field or as a good repository of data on the housing situation in Canada and tenant unions.

[Andrioux · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book grabbed me by the throat. I just wish it would have come out years ago, and not now in the middle of this housing catastrophe.

Tranjan does a good job of politicizing the so-called crisis by holding the landlord class and political class accountable and daring to call them out.

Our cowardly media insists that the lack of housing and resulting homelessness are simply the result of natural forces that cannot be stopped. The media and political class have raised their hands and said "Oh no, this is terrible! It's a shame that there is no one to blame and nothing to do. So we will just talk endlessly about housing unaffordability and homelessness as if they are perfectly natural events while holding no one accountable."

Written almost as a manifesto - this book is a good first step in politicizing Canadians. It's our job, however, to fight for ourselves as a social class and hold the landlord class and political class accountable to their profiteering, corruption, and greed.

[Scott Neigh]

A short, blunt book (written not by an organizer but by a researcher who works in solidarity with organizers) that argues that the so-called "housing crisis" in Canada is not, in fact, a sudden and unexpected failure of an otherwise functional housing system that must be resolved by research, consultation, and technical measures, but rather a predictable and ongoing reality produced by a housing system that depends on exploitation and that can only be meaningfully undone through class struggle and building tenant power. A really useful antidote to the misleading way that housing usually gets talked about in mainstream contexts, and a useful tool for tenants and their allies who are trying to figure out what to do about it. Could've used more depth, in particular in its exploration of different tenant groups and struggles, but I also see the value in keeping it brief.

[Elliot G Ugalde · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review provides a good overview of crisis theory and its relevance to the housing crisis in Canada. However, the engagement with the topic is somewhat superficial and serves more as an introduction rather than a deep analysis. Additionally, Tranjan does not adequately address the criticisms of the so-called “Tenant Class.”

While he defines the tenant class based on their relationship to the means of social reproduction—similar to how orthodox Marxists define class by one's relationship to the means of industrial production—there is little exploration of why this distinction is necessary. Given that tenants are typically not owners of industrial capital, and vice versa, this new definition seems somewhat redundant without further justification or analysis.

[Carolyn Whitzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ll write a proper review of The Tenant Class, but Ricardo Tranjan’s book is simple and trenchant. The thesis is that Canada doesn’t have a housing crisis; it’s simply landlord exploitation of tenants working as it should. There is some good history of tenant struggles since the 1860s, and a summary of the political economy perspective on financialization of housing.

[Ronan Grey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book/essay rich with humanism. Tranjan starts out by empirically proving the greed motivation of the established landlord class and proceeds to spend the majority of the book reflecting on the tenant class' historical victories in canada. Book beautifully states the need for class-based organizing that rejects requests for 'fair' treatment by the economic ruling class.

[Sukhpreet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Read it. A concise and contemporary--with the right amount of history, though--analysis of the shitshow that is the Canadian housing market (with applicability to other jurisdictions too).

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid examination of housing in Canada that provides a blueprint forward for making housing a human right

[Sue C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth reading but sometimes a bit vague and superficial.

[Santiago · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10

it's cool. serves as a history of many toronto tenant movements but i don't think its own contributions are particularly revelatory...

[Shania · Rating 4 out of 5]

❗️LANDLORDS ARE THE SCUM OF THE EARTH❗️

a straightforward and informative book on the Canadian "housing crisis" that could easily be applied to the UK too. wish it went into more detail on the tenant unions and name dropped the landlords so I can fight them 👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽

[Nicolas Arseneault · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lecture intéressante qui résume bien les enjeux autour de la location. J'ai bien aimé son approche pour présenter différemment la lutte des classes et les nombreuses histoires de lutte entre associations de locataires et propriétaires.

[Miila Tuju · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each paragraph is packed with concise and well articulated information. It took me so long to read because I had to digest each sentence. It's a great resource to lend to friends and to quote at your weird uncle who doesn't understand why widening roads won't solve traffic

[Care · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up

[Kelsey ✮⋆˙ · Rating 4 out of 5]

[☆3.5/5] this is short, though well edited -- an insightful look into myths surrounding the housing crisis. i appreciated the author's tone; direct, and much of it echoed marxist teachings. housing is a human right!!!

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

tranjan is right — we don't have a so-called housing crisis; we have a crisis of governments enabling landlords to exploit working-class renters. we have a crisis of landlords being emboldened to buy additional investment properties and complain when they can't milk more money out of tenants to pay for the mortgage on their third or fourth house. we have a crisis of bureaucrats masking the problem behind a facade of neutral language that positions skyrocketing rents as a curious phenomenon emerging from seemingly nowhere. if only we knew why tenants are being made to pay so much! (spoiler alert: tranjan perceptively notes that it's because landlords choose to do this and systems empower them to make these decisions.)

this is meant to be a manifesto for tenant organizers. as such, it really doesn't go into the minutiae of race, decolonization, and solidarity as much as i would've liked. where are the spaces to build solidarity across race within the working class? people of colour have lower homeownership rates than white people, except — as tranjan points out — among east and south asians. we can't say that poc are a monolith that's being exploited qua renters when class shapes race and vice versa.

and what could happen if we rethought housing not as a commodity to be purchased and rented but as a fundamental right? that the land belongs to no individual or corporation but to us all?

[Yum Yucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last month, The Walrus ran an essay (https://thewalrus.ca/there-is-no-hous...) called "There is no housing crisis." Although it is not this, the essay could be welcome even as hypnosis: there is no crisis. There is no crisis. Not anymore. Yesterday I read prices are falling as landlords, trapped underneath crushing interest, tap out; the day before I read rents are up 30% year-over-year. Both stories quote seers, market readers, invisible hand palm-readers. Today, another voice says there is no crisis at all.

What I first thought was contrarian headline writing is a book-length argument for a Marxist perspective on Canada's landowning class:

"There is no 'housing crisis,' just good old landlords squeezing high rents from tenants. The owning class get rich on the back of working people. Laws allow it ... norms dictate that acquisition and speculation are worthy of praise ... wonks insist on referring to this situation as a 'housing crisis,' suggesting it requires a technical solution, whereas the problem is clearly political. (105)"

The book is not light on technical details, though. Canadian readers will probably find their city cited in this text when the author describes rents overgrowing dead wages, or the negligible rates of so-called "mom and pop" landlords.

Even so, it's them, the scandalous proportion of Canadians who steal another's living as their retirement plan, that you will remember after reading this book.

[Litfahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tranjan's repositioning of the tenant-landlord relationship as a class relationship, and the housing crisis as an arm of class warfare, won't be groundbreaking for anyone with a familiarity with Marx and an interest in housing. It's an interesting read, but not really for those people (he doesn't use the word dialectic once!). The target audience of the analysis and the accompanying call-to-action is renters themselves: in that way, it's more like a renter's Communist Manifesto than a Marxist academic's tome. For that purpose, it's great. Tranjan's writing is clear, accessible (not using the word dialectic is a boon here), and appropriately inflammatory.

The chapters on the history of Canadian housing and the tenant movement are the strongest, and of interest to the tenant activist and the Marxist academic. However, I object to Tranjan's claim that there is no "housing crisis" (quotations his). Sure, people have perceived there to be a crisis of some sort for a while, but as far as I know the past decade has seen an acute escalation in rental costs compared to renter's wages. If Tranjan has some numbers to suggest the situation is not worse than before, he does not share them. Ignoring the escalation of contradictions in the rental market is his biggest mistake, and potentially costly to tenant organizers taking lessons from this book.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent and quick read. Tranjan packs a lot into relatively few pages. This book's intended audience is tenants and encourages them to organize, although it isn't a step-by-step how-to guide. It presents a counter-narrative against the accepted narrative of the housing crisis in Canada.

Tranjan argues that there is no housing crisis as that is how the system is designed to function. He focuses on the extraction and transfer of wealth from tenants in the form of rent to landlords. He presents data that dispels the notion that most landlords and "mom and pops" trying to make ends meet and pay their own mortgage. Even if that were the case, there is inherently a power imbalance between landlords and tenants.

The big gap I found in this book is a lack of discussion about security of tenure. This, in my opinion, is a central concern to making renting in the long term a viable option. Too often, long term tenants are evicted because higher rents can be charged once a unit is vacated and re-rented.

The book closes with calls to action for various members of society (tenants, organizers, policy professionals, journalists).

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for those seeking a deeper understanding of the inequalities present within society.
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How did the book make me feel/think?

Tenants are being thrown into the chaos of the situation. They are caught in the middle of conflicts between landlords, government regulations, and financial struggles. Many have lost their homes or struggled to pay rent during the pandemic, further complicating their already challenging situations. Throw in unscrupulous business owners fuelled by greed, who used the pandemic to stuff their already overstuffed pockets at the expense of the people who stuffed their pockets. As eviction moratoriums expire and rent prices continue to rise, tenants are left with few options and are often pushed into dire circumstances. The lack of affordable housing, coupled with inadequate tenant protections, leaves these vulnerable individuals navigating a treacherous landscape with few resources at their disposal.

The Tenant Class, offers a profound analysis of the flaws of capitalism and the significant divide between the owning and working class. The book dispels the notion of a housing crisis and sheds light on the struggles of many individuals just trying to find and maintain decent living conditions.

This book is a must-read for those seeking a deeper understanding of the inequalities present within society.

WRITTEN: 8 July 2023