Slum Landlord

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A slumlord (or slum landlord) is a slang term for a landlord, generally an absentee landlord with more than one property, who attempts to maximize profit by minimizing spending on property maintenance, often in deteriorating neighborhoods, and to tenants that they can intimidate. Severe housing shortages allow slumlords to charge higher rents, and when they can get away with it, to break rental laws.^[1][2]

As many of these neighborhoods are often populated by poor minorities, the term "ghetto landlord" has also been used. A "retail slumlord" is one who keeps a shopping mall in a bad shape until the government buys or confiscates it.

The origin of the phrase "slumlord" is unknown, but an early mention can be found in a 1927 journal article titled, "Theories, Facts, and Figures" by William L. Hare in the Academic Journal "Garden cities & town planning; a journal of housing, town planning & civic improvement." Hare credits the 'polemical press' of the time for referring to landlords of areas referred to as slums as slumlords. ^[3]