Finding a Home during the Affordable Housing Crisis: How Social Ties Shape Renters’ Housing-Search Outcomes
研究洛杉矶69名低收入拉丁裔和白人租房者如何利用社会关系寻找住房，发现拉丁裔获得有限支持（如转介、贷款），而白人获得灵活支持（如共同签署租约、赠款），导致不同搜寻结果，加剧种族分层。
Housing searches play a central role in the reproduction of racial inequality in U.S. cities. Past research finds that movers’ social ties influence residential segregation, as renters receive information about homes located near friends and family. Fewer studies examine how renters’ social ties also provide instrumental assistance during moves, or how this aid unequally shapes moving outcomes. In the present study, I show how 69 low-income, Latina/o and non-Hispanic white renters rely on their friends, family, and acquaintances to navigate moves in Los Angeles, a highly unaffordable rental market. Both groups mobilize their ties for instrumental assistance, but the resources available through renters’ ties contribute to diverging search outcomes. Low-income Latina/o renters’ ties, who also struggled to make ends meet, provided what I call constrained support—referrals to open units, loans to cover moving costs, and informal rental opportunities. This assistance channeled movers to specific apartments and left them negotiating informal, doubled-up homes and new debt. In contrast, low-income white renters leveraged comparatively affluent ties to cosign leases, provide financial gifts, and strengthen applications across buildings—what I refer to as flexible assistance. This aid helped low-income white movers secure housing advantages, while avoiding short-term reciprocal obligations to friends and family. These findings advance research on residential mobility and social support, and they show how network resource inequalities contribute to racial stratification in rental markets.