“It is a part of our culture in Canada and in other Anglo-Saxon countries. We have equated homeownership with success, with security, with making it,” says Ricardo Tranjan. “I think this fixation on homeownership and the stigma attached to renting prevents us from having a better conversation about the different options to achieve housing security.” Ricardo Tranjan is a professor, political economist, and senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. He managed Toronto’s Poverty Reduction Strategy, and, in his early academic work, focused on economic development and participatory democracy in Brazil, his native country. In his book The Tenant Class, Ricardo poses the provocative question – what if there is no housing crisis, but instead a housing market working exactly as intended? Author Leslie Kern says, “this book explodes entrenched myths about renters and landlords and will change the way many people understand the injustice of the housing system.” Ricardo has a PhD from the University of Waterloo, where he was a Vanier Scholar. A frequent media commentator in English and French, he lives in Ottawa.

Appearing in 9. We Don’t Talk About Class