Soaring rent prices aren’t just hurting wallets. They’re shortening life spans.

Paying high rent is stressful, and a recent study found it can actually shorten your life span. 

People who spent a vast portion of their income on rent were more likely to experience poor health and had a greater risk of premature death, the study found.

The research published in November in the peer-reviewed journal Social Science & Medicine also found that evictions and even the threat of being evicted were linked to higher mortality rates.

“Rising rents and evictions have been having a huge impact on mortality rates for American renters,” said Nick Graetz, a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University and the lead author of the sociology study.

Experts say tenants whose rent had gone up are more likely to suffer from chronic stress, which research has shown can lead to headache disorders, heart disease and hypertension.

People who spend more than 30% of their monthly income on rent may also be less likely to spend money on healthy foods and medical care, health experts say, and may spend more time at work trying to keep up with unaffordable rent instead of taking the time to manage health conditions.

Why are renters dying?

Despite a cooling market, the rent increases overall remain higher than they were before the pandemic. And as monthly costs have skyrocketed, tenants have struggled to keep up.

Between 2019 and 2021, the median monthly rent increased by 3% while the median renter's income fell by 2%, according to a 2023 Harvard report. Housing experts recommend tenants spend less than 30% of their income on rent, yet study authors found more than 21 million U.S. households spend more than that, with some even spending as much as 50%.

Rising rents are detrimental to both mental and physical health, experts say. A growing body of research shows high rent burden and the threat of eviction increase the risk of depression and anxiety. They also increase the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease. Meanwhile, people who received rental assistance to alleviate high costs have shown reduced psychological distress.

In the January study, study authors isolated the impact of rent on renters' health by looking at millions of eviction records and linking them to the evicted person's death records and census data. They controlled for systematic differences in characteristics – including race, ethnicity, sex, education, household and neighborhood – when comparing mortality rates and tenants with different rent burdens over time.

The study found people who had spent more than 50% of their income on rent were 9% more likely to die in the next 20 years compared with those who paid 30% of their income on rent. People were 12% more likely to die if they had spent more than 70% of their income on rent.

Tenants who are at risk of being evicted tend to prioritize paying rent "at the expense of all other costs of life" that may impact their health like food, utilities and medical care, Graetz said.

Danya Keene, associate professor of social and behavioral sciences at Yale School of Public Health, authored a study that found rental assistance alleviates psychological stress. She said chronic stress from not being able to keep up with high rental prices may also lead to poor health.

Stress causes the body to release the hormone cortisol, according to the American Psychological Association, which affects all bodily systems. Research shows chronic stress can lead to high blood pressure, clogged arteries, anxiety, depression and addiction. Keene said chronic stress can also lead people to coping mechanisms that further damage health, including long work hours and substance abuse.

"When people are living in the day-to-day fear of eviction because they know they're just one missed payment or one unexpected expense away from being evicted – that keeps them up at night," she said.

Housing crisis turned health crisis

The only way to reverse this health trend is to address the housing crisis, Keene said.

There’s an urgent need to create more housing and offer more subsidies that make housing affordable. Tenants spend an average of two years – in some cases up to 10 years – on waiting lists after they apply for rental subsidies, Keene said, and only 1 in 5 eligible households end up receiving them.

A 2021 study she co-authored found renters in New Haven, Connecticut, who weren't receiving assistance or were on the waitlist for it were more likely to report severe psychological distress than those who had received subsidies.

Another way to improve renters’ health is to protect them against eviction, Graetz, the author of the Princeton study, said.

Depending on the city and state, landlords can file evictions quickly and easily. In his research, Graetz found most cases are submitted because a tenant has fallen just a few hundred dollars behind on rent.

Judges tend to side with landlords, and tenants are not guaranteed counsel, Graetz said. Once a renter is evicted, they have a strict number of days to find somewhere to live. Under a time crunch, they often settle for housing that’s more expensive than where they had previously lived and the whole cycle repeats itself.

“The law favors owners at the end of the day and provides very little protection for tenants,” he said. Renters live “under a system that makes it difficult to retain housing whenever you experience a problem.”

Some cities are beginning to catch on and implement programs that mitigate evictions.

Philadelphia has kept a pandemic-era mediation program that provides resources to landlords and tenants to resolve issues without involving the court process. If a tenant owes less than $3,000 in back rent, landlords must go through the program before filing for eviction.

As home ownership becomes less attainable and the renter population grows, experts warn more people will be at risk for poor health and death if something isn't done to address the housing crisis and alleviate the high rent burden.

“We’re not going to solve the problem without creating more housing,” Keene said.

Send tips to Adrianna Rodriguez: adrodriguez@usatoday.com.