They Have Yet to Sign a Lease. But They’re Furious Over $3,100 Rents.

Article excerpt

New York City's young people, priced out of the rental market at $3,100 a month for modest apartments, are beginning to mobilize around housing costs as a generational issue, joining climate change, gun violence, and war on their list of urgent political causes. The article explores whether the affordability crisis will ignite the same kind of organized youth activism that has defined their generation on other existential threats. For many twenty-somethings, the math is brutal: rents consume half or more of entry-level salaries, making homeownership feel impossible. Organizers see an opening to channel young people's frustration into political pressure on zoning, development, and rental regulations.