The Owners: Landlords and Landladies

In this chapter we examine the demographic background of the 30 owners in our study. We note the vulnerability of some landladies and landlords, and the critical role lodging plays in their survival. We emphasize the wide range of ages, incomes, and economic opportunities for our owners. This supports the notion of the universality of lodging and wide variation of the features of lodging provision. We then uncover the various pathways to home-ownership, issues with accessing formal financing, and the circumstances under which owners began to rent to lodgers. We explore the range of business strategies for our owners, and finally we present 3 lodging typologies.