Rental housing and crime: The role of property ownership and management. Ann Reg Sci

Previous studies suggest a connection between neighborhood rental occupancy rates and crime. This paper explores characteristics of rental properties with disturbances, assaults, and drug use and distribution. It examines police department incident reports for privately owned rental dwellings. Results show that a small percentage of properties account for all the reports for rental dwellings. Count model regressions indicate that residence of owner, size of rental property holdings, tenant Section 8 voucher use, and neighborhood owner-occupied housing rates are asso-ciated with reported violations. The paper concludes with recommenda-tions about local government policies that could help to reduce crime in rental housing. 1 Intro In towns and cities across the country, the so-called absentee landlord and urban slumlord is viewed as a major source of problems, such as crime an