Introduction

This chapter begins by introducing the fate of two women who are housing insecure. Along those two personal stories, the main fault lines of the housing crisis are illustrated. People struggle with high cost burdensCost burden and inadequate housing conditions; they experience displacements and evictions, all while the real estate economyReal Estate Economy is booming. This discrepancy is then supported by facts and figures on the US housing market which illustrate the multifaceted character of the US housing crisis and subsequent housing insecurityHousinghousing insecurity. Building on this, the theoretical and methodological background is laid out. After a short literature review of geographical housing research, trust is introduced as an innovative approach to studying home and housing, allowing researchers to focus on the lived dimension of the housing crisis and to flesh out the human costs of housing insecurityHousinghousing insecurity. Finally, this chapter details the main goals of the book and outlines how the various chapters help support the main arguments and answer the research questions.