ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors examine two indirect effects of rising energy prices on lower income households—their impact on the rental housing market and on the delivery of local public services. They present the framework of empirical analysis with a brief description of the "crisis" in the rental housing market, the different interpretations of its causes, and a specification of the role that the authors believe energy prices have played in creating the crisis. No one disputes the fact that operating costs have, indeed, been rising faster than rents. With respect to the first source of pressure on the rental housing market, the authors show that when the market is broken down into lower and non-lower income segments, the counter-arguments lose their force. If there is a general income constraint operating, it can have an especially powerful effect on the lower income rental market.
