Volume 18, Issue 3
2007

Karen Danielsen

The current literature on gated communites characterizes residents as fearful, wealthy, white homeowners. Thus, researchers using recent American Housing Survey (AHS) data were surprised to find that many residents of gated communities live in apartments and that residents of walled or fenced communities were actually more likely to be renters than owners.

 

This article uses the AHS to explore the characteristics of residents of rental gated communties (the other half). Factors leading to the growth of gated communties in general and gated apartments in particular are considered. Owned and rental gated communites are compared as a first step in defining the differences between these kinds of tenure, and existing research on subsidized gated housing is updated using descriptive and trend data. The housing opportunities and restraints that rental gated communites create for minorities are analyzed, and policy implications for the growth of rental gated communites are discussed.

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