‘Shelter is a Dignity’: Rental Racism, Stress and Housing (In)justice

Abstract

Australia's private rental sector is in crisis, and culturally and racially minoritised renters face compounded harms through both covert and everyday direct forms of rental racism. Drawing on five community-based focus groups in Melbourne (n = 37), the paper explores how racism manifests across the rental pathway and how it structures the relationship between housing security and stress from a sociolegal perspective that examines access, occupancy and exit. Findings show rental racism operating as (1) access injustice through gatekeeping, and everyday racism; (2) occupancy injustice through selective enforcement and surveillance that constrains renter autonomy in everyday landlord, agent, n..