Uncertain refuge
Experiences of tenure security in a precarious housing system
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11484380 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sharda Rozena (0000-0002-9845-1402, University of Sheffield, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-20 |
| Publication date | 2026-04-06 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Housing Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0267-3037 • E-ISSN: 1466-1810 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02673037.2026.2650638 |
| OpenAlex | W7150871874 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 47 |
This article reports on the lives of the remaining rent-controlled (regulated) tenants in England’s private rental sector. Although small in number, this group is central to discussions on housing precarity, as they benefit from secure tenancies and limits on the rent they pay. The article considers what it means to have security in a private rental sector that is more broadly characterised by pervasive insecurity, high costs and poor conditions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 31 regulated tenants, and their life stories were discussed in order to build effective understanding of psycho-social and ontological security. The article presents the concept of ‘uncertain refuge’ to capture the way that even protected tenants appear, in the accounts of participants, to be beset by subtle forms of anxiety, displacement pressures and the difficulty of making lifelong homes. Thus, regulated tenancies only offer partial forms of ontological security. This concept helps us to think through the difficulties of achieving deeper forms of housing security in a sector that, arguably, is ultimately not capable of offering a sense of futurity for its residents. These conclusions have wider international relevance given global concerns around insecurities in the private rental sector, and the effectiveness of regulatory controls.
Housing tenure · Precarious work · Precarity · Social security · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Urban and Rural Development Challenges · Urban Planning and Governance
Free Market Fairness
Abductive Analysis
Home
The Financialization of Housing
Neoliberalism’s apotheosis? Class, capital and the ideological development of the UK Labour Party’s planning reforms
Precarious lives
Advance rent payment and its influence on access to housing by the urban poor
Ontological Security and Psycho-Social Benefits from the Home
Insecure Housing and the Ongoing Search for Ontological Security
Displacement on the Lancaster West Estate in London before, during, and after the Grenfell fire
Beverley’s Story
Communal interaction and creativity as revolution
Forging unity, marking distinction
Constructing a housing precariousness measure for Europe
Housing tenure and subjective poverty among young European adults
The impact of rent control on housing maintenance
Responding to housing precarity
The experience of precarity
Experiencing housing precarity in the private rental sector during the covid-19 pandemic
Making a Rental Property Home
You can’t put your roots down’
Housing tenure and the health of older Australians dependent on the age pension for their income
The new housing precariat
Tenure insecurity, precarious housing and hidden homelessness among older renters in New Zealand
Generation rent’ and the emotions of private renting
Rent regulation in 21 st century Europe. Comparative perspectives
Secure occupancy, power and the landlord-tenant relation
The unravelling of housing policy in Britain
Secure Occupancy
Housing and cardiometabolic risk among older renters and homeowners
Housing affordability and rent control
Harassment or neglect? How market dynamics and rent control shape landlord behaviour in Los Angeles
Housing the historical bloc
Competition in the Private-Rented Sector
The Housing Decisions of Young People
Home, Home Ownership and the Search for Ontological Security
Understanding the mental health effects of instability in the private rental sector
Unwilling Subjects of Financialization
Pressure and violence
Loneliness and housing tenure
Disconnected
Contentious buildings
Housing Pathways and Stratification
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |