I'm Pretty Sure Bachelorette JoJo Fletcher's New Home Reno Show Is About Creating Slumlords

I assumed things were going downhill for JoJo Fletcher, Season 20’s Bachelorette, and her partner Jordan Rodgers, best known for being a younger brother to Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, when they launched their own Kin Original Series on YouTube about mundane relationship stuff, but I was wrong. The couple is back, and gearing up to premiere their new home renovation show, Cash Pad, on CNBC Tuesday, July 23. Judging by the few video teases that have emerged online, I assume it is a program where these two C-list celebs transform spaces for Americans across the country and then… turn them into slumlords.

The concept, as explained by Fletcher, seems simple enough. “It’s where we team up with home owners that have really cool, unique properties and we turn them into profitable, vacation, short-term rentals,” she says in a tease. “We’re entrepreneurs. This is what we do,” Rodgers adds to not appear disinterested.

Apparently, they both own multiple properties and keep them as rentals, and now want a bunch of other people to do the same, specifically those located in tourist destinations—including one couple who own a shipping container. They transform the metal rectangle into an apartment to rent to yokels who desire a brief, niche living situation.

Cash Pad arrives at a time when more and more people are electing to go the AirBnB route than stay at traditional hotels because, duh, it’s usually more affordable. What these teasers fail to note, however, are all of the negative effects of short-term rentals. It would be much more ethical if Fletcher and Rodgers were helping renovate spaces for full-time renting: as the BBC reported, AirBnB listings in Manhattan earned “two to three times the median long-term rent,” inspiring many landlords to turn their properties into short-term rentals instead of places people can actually live. It isn’t a unique burden to New York City, either. According to the Guardian, cities like Amsterdam have begun placing heavy restrictions on short-term sublets after much protesting for its residents.

Cash Pad appears to promote the displacement of locals who call these towns home. The constant cheering of the Bachelorette and her partner of “more money!” in the promo is extremely bleak, too, and desperately requires some real transparency. I can’t imagine this show being anything other than completely dystopic. When the worldwide housing crisis gets to be even worse, who knows if we’ll be forced to pay rent on a nightly basis, in a converted dumpster, to an incredibly wealthy class of slumlords who got the idea from CNBC? That’s not how I’m trying to live.