Responding to housing precarity: the coping strategies of Generation Rent

Across advanced economies, a new generation of renters are confronting a suite of social and economic precarities with respect to housing, employment and welfare. Unaffordable rents, insecure tenancies and poor-quality accommodation are emblematic of these contemporary insecurities. However, the experiences of such renters and their responses to housing hardships remain under-explored in the Generation Rent literature. Drawing on a qualitative study (n=28) of renters from Dublin (Ireland), this paper examines the ways people develop coping strategies to respond to their housing difficulties, or at least minimise their adverse effects. The analysis shows that young renters are far from passive victims. Even though they faced significant pressures regarding housing affordability, security, quality and access, they worked hard to maintain their homes. The findings illustrate how people respond to difficult housing circumstances by adopting a range of expenditure, employment and housing-related responses. It also shows how such experiences impact upon social identity, family relations and psycho-social health.