What is a Slumlord?

True slumlords are distinct from other irresponsible (typically "absentee") property owners who are sloppy, careless, or in over their heads in the landlording business, although the latter kind of owner hardly has a good effect on a community. True slumlords are intentionally callous and possibly criminal exploiters of real-estate, which they treat as a pure commodity.

Slumlords are most successful in unstable areas where owner-occupancy rates are weak or in decline, where residents are disorganized, lacking the solidarity of relationships based on awareness of shared interests and of threats to those interests and the common good. People who act like victims, will be victims: apathy about what others are doing around you goes hand-in-hand with ignorance of what is being done--and what it means for you and your neighbors.

A neighborhood characterized by these negative traits is not much of a neighborhood and will be easy prey for slumlords and petty thugs. Passivity in the face of increasing criminal aggression and economic exploitation will naturally increase the tendency of non-criminal, non-predatory residents to bunker down or move out.