The Inner-City Resident: To Move or Not to Move

Housing dissatisfaction, the wish to move, and actual attempts to find a new home were studied in relation to actual moves by elderly slum dwellers over the following two years. While it was the better-off older person who seemed to want to move, who actually did move could not be predicted by any personal characteristics other than actually having tried to find a new home. This unpredictability is interpreted as evidence for a lack of control over one's own behavior which is typical of the disenfranchised older city dweller.