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    Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
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    Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
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    Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
    Audiobook11 hours

    Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

    Written by Matthew Desmond

    Narrated by Dion Graham

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    From Harvard sociologist and MacArthur "Genius" Matthew Desmond, a landmark work of scholarship and reportage that will forever change the way we look at poverty in America

    In this brilliant, heartbreaking audiobook, Matthew Desmond takes us into the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee to tell the story of eight families on the edge. Arleen is a single mother trying to raise her two sons on the $20 a month she has left after paying for their rundown apartment. Scott is a gentle nurse consumed by a heroin addiction. Lamar, a man with no legs and a neighborhood full of boys to look after, tries to work his way out of debt. Vanetta participates in a botched stickup after her hours are cut. All are spending almost everything they have on rent, and all have fallen behind.

    The fates of these families are in the hands of two landlords: Sherrena Tarver, a former schoolteacher turned inner-city entrepreneur, and Tobin Charney, who runs one of the worst trailer parks in Milwaukee. They loathe some of their tenants and are fond of others, but as Sherrena puts it, "Love don't pay the bills." She moves to evict Arleen and her boys a few days before Christmas.

    Even in the most desolate areas of American cities, evictions used to be rare. But today, most poor renting families are spending more than half of their income on housing, and eviction has become ordinary, especially for single mothers. In vivid, intimate prose, Desmond provides a ground-level view of one of the most urgent issues facing America today. As we see families forced  into shelters, squalid apartments, or more dangerous neighborhoods, we bear witness to the human cost of America's vast inequality-and to people's determination and intelligence in the face of hardship.

    Based on years of embedded fieldwork and painstakingly gathered data, this masterful audiobook transforms our understanding of extreme poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving a devastating, uniquely American problem. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMar 1, 2016
    ISBN9780147526793
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Evicted

    4.5/5

    674 ratings117 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Wow. This is not an easy read, but an important one. A non-fiction book, "Evicted" describes the situation of the renters and landlords in the slums of an american city. A story that makes you sad and angry about the situation and how it could have ever gotten this bad.

      Aside from the harrowing stories told about the people, it is also a window into the dysfunctional housing market, the lack of regulation, and the insufficient social safety net of the United States. Somewhat tangentially, the epilogue also provides an interesting window into how social science research works.

      Read this book.
    • 5/5
      This is not a fun read, but it's an important one.

      Desmond's investigations into the housing situation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the first decade of the 21st century exposes the systematic abuses in a housing market biased in every way against low-income renters. From obscene profit levels taken by landlords to one-sided court proceedings to protective systems that increase rather than decreasing hardship among the population they are designed to serve, the story is thought-provoking, brutal, and depressing.

      Desmond keeps his focus tightly on two groups of people -- the very poorest of the poor, many of whom spend upwards of 80% of their income to obtain substandard lodging, and on two landlords with large investments in inner-city rental properties. He also looks at the ways in which the struggle to keep a roof over one's head impacts social relations, and clarifies the incredible disruption caused by eviction actions.

      No one comes out of this war zone unblemished. Certainly not the reader.

      His recomendations to ameliorate the situation may or may not be practical, but they assign an entirely new meaning to the term "housing crisis".
    • 4/5
      I actually finished this last night, and since then have been trying to figure out how to process my feelings and thoughts about this book. Raised in Chicago I am aware of the housing crisis, remember well both the crime ridden, drug and gang infested, Robert Taylor homes and Cabrini Green. Public housing failures. Although this book is about Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the author states this is a crisis effecting any large, urban city. Following eight families, two landlords we are personally made aware of their struggles, evictions, loss of security, children and day to day poverty. No one can afford to put 80% of their income towards rent. There are no winners here, this is definitely not a happy little book. These people live sad lives, so sad I can't even imagine. It hurts, hurts that in this country of plenty, so many do without. They are caught in a whirlwind from which they cannot escape. Yes, sometimes I wanted to tell them, stop the drugs, stop having children you cannot afford, take care of what you have even if it is substandard. I'm only human, my feelings, my thoughts are ones that say, never give up! But....as you read, you cannot help but understand, more and more. They try, until they can't anymore. Landlords take their money, fix little, water, heat, not their primary concern. They fix little, knowing their are so many desperate people out there, they will find someone to rent despite what is within.The author, rightly states, something must be done. His thoughts turn to universal housing vouchers, where the poor would only have to pay up to 35% of their salary, the government picking up the rest. This way they could move anywhere, not just poor, crime ridden neighborhoods. In a equal world this woukd be perfect, but he does mention that even that idea has defects, as many in better neighborhoods don't want those kind of people as neighbors. You can mandate change, but changing people's biases are much harder. Sociological problems are the hardest to solve.
    • 5/5
      A fascinating story of how poverty and housing issues intertwine in Milwaukee, and around the US. Desmond does a great job getting us to understand the positions of both the renters and the landlords, in a trailer park and in the inner city. Neither group is 100% sympathetic and that is okay. Even for the drug addicts one cannot fail to feel empathy. We get a slice of life, as it depends on housing. Desmond takes care also to explain the economics and incentives carefully and concretely. The solution Desmond proposes, universal housing vouchers, which landlords cannot deny, seems simplistic. It might in fact be a good policy, or perhaps even a solution, but Desmond doesn't lay out the argument for it very well, and tellingly elides some statistics. But that's not the main point of the book, and I am glad that he at least tried to connect the research to policy. It would be interesting to learn more about how politics contributed to the situation (there is some historical discussion here, but not much). I also appreciated his description of how he carried out the research. It was an impressive project, combining tons of embedded reporting with surveys and other research.
    • 4/5
      Primarily in 2008-2009, Matthew Desmond followed several tenants and landlords in Milwaukee to find out about eviction and its long-term effects on people living in deep poverty. He tells the stories of Scott, a former nurse who had a drug habit and lived in a trailer; Arleen, a single black mom trying to raise her two youngest boys and being forced to move often; Larraine, whose SSI check could barely cover the rent; and many more.This was an incredibly hard read. I had to keep putting it down because I was getting mad and depressed. So many people living in so many difficult situations - some of these places sounded horrendous - already in dire straits would experience an eviction that would set off a domino effect leaving you reeling. The chapter that really got me mad was "Nuisance" and had to do with the ability of landlords to evict after too many police calls - which makes sense, perhaps, if you're talking about noise complaints or drug busts, but what so many of those calls actually were was domestic violence. Though Desmond's conclusions about possible solutions will probably draw party lines with liberals more likely to agree with him, his methodology and ability to simply lay out facts about poverty and rentals in the U.S. should have an outcry from anyone that something needs to change.
    • 4/5
      It took me a long time to read this. Not because it's not a good book—it's a very good book. I could not read too much at a time, because the subject matter is infuriating. I was pleased that Desmond included a policy prescription for the housing crisis; without this, it would have been a desolate read.
    • 5/5
      Digital audio read by Dion Graham.Subtitle: Poverty and Profit in the American CityFascinating. Frustrating. Horrifying. Compassionate. Informative. Distressing. Enlightening. Desmond thoroughly explores the effects on impoverished residents of being repeatedly evicted and contrasts the plight of the poor with the profits made at their expense. Many of the people he profiles are not people I’d want to rent to back in the days when I was a landlord; they were dealing with drug addiction, anger-management issues, domestic violence. And yet, they are human beings, most with hopes and dreams of a better life, but stuck in an endless cycle or disappointment and despair. Desmond lays out evidence that denying them a decent shelter perpetuates the cycle of poverty. And the landlords he profiles are not people I’d want to be friends with either. They did little to maintain the properties and simply took their profits to the bank. In the end, I'm left with more questions than answers, but these are questions that need to be asked, and answers that need to be sought. I can hardly wait for my F2F book club meeting in September.Dion Graham does a marvelous job of narrating the audiobook. Clear diction, and a good pace gave me time to absorb information.
    • 5/5
      In any given city, during any given week, a similar scene plays out: the sheriff's deputies knock on the door and escort the occupants out of the house, then a team of movers comes in and hauls the family's belongings out to the curb. They've been evicted. In this book, Matthew Desmond follows the stories of several Milwaukee inhabitants as they struggle to pay the rent. It's a gripping and compelling read, if bleak. I was particularly interested to read the note at the end about his methodology: he never uses the pronoun "I" in the book, but he's often the unseen observer at the scene. I would widely recommend this book; even though it's a few years old now, it still has lots to say about poverty and housing in America.
    • 5/5
      One reason Matthew Desmond’s book has been so acclaimed is that this book has lifted America’s skirts, revealing, once again, soiled and raggedy under garments. One need not be a social scientist to know that many of America’s wealthiest have always lived well by feeding on poor and ethnic peoples. Prior to reading this book, I had limited knowledge of the plight of renters as I have worked to assist friends and loved-ones find affordable dwellings after evictions – but I never knew the bigger picture, until now.I have known many property-owners and their stories of damaged dwellings caused me to opt-out of the landlord business, as I never wanted to put myself in situations that called for me to act with an iron-fist. I commend Matthew for his research, book and ongoing efforts to champion the cause of affordable housing, in what is touted as the richest country in the world. I am inspired by the strength and perseverance of people everywhere who are facing eviction. My story took place 40+ yrs ago when the world was a very different place, but it still had lasting effects as I, (after 32 years of homeowner-ship) remain concerned about any event that could cause me to loose my home. In 1984 I was the single mother of a two-year-old, living on the south-side of Chicago. Rent took most of my income, but I was fortunate to find work that allowed me to bring my toddler along. The initial rental agreement included water, heat and cooking gas. In January all the tenants received notice that the landlord would no longer supply gas. After inquiring with the gas company it was clear that I’d have to move – but where do you go in the dead of winter? Over the next 4 years, we stayed with friends, moved multiple times through no fault of my own, until I swallowed my pride and asked my parents to help me purchase my home.I share this story because of the mental trauma of being temporarily without an address. I can only imagine the horror of an actual eviction. Again I, and countless others thank you, Matthew. May The Lord continue to Bless and strengthen you for the mighty work ahead...SMILE!!!
    • 4/5
      I grew up in Milwaukee. I can picture 90% of the buildings and intersections referenced in this book. I was in high school during the time Desmond's research took place. I was in and around referenced landmarks during that time. There are memories there for me. That said, this was at times very hard for me to read. I kept picturing people on the street and buses, wondering if this was what they had been going through.

      I think this book is important for us to consider as a society. In the epilogue Desmond addresses how America should be addressing this crisis and I agree, if not with all of his methods, in that something needs to be done. This is a hidden social class that is only becoming more hidden.

      The research was well done (being first-hand I would hope so), and the text well-written. Again, highly suggest giving it a read.
    • 4/5
      In a very real way Mr. Desmond makes real the impossible situations poor families and individuals find themselves in when it comes to finding and keeping a place to live. The picture he paints of the terrible housing that exists, the ways in which getting and keeping housing impacts the ability to work, to go to school, to do anything to better one's circumstances is a bleak one. I had a hard time reading this.
    • 4/5
      This is a book that stuck with me. It is not easy to read the facts of poverty and the daily difficulties that people living paycheck to paycheck face. But Mr. Desmond makes those facts exponentially harder by illustrating them with stories of real people and the constant, exhausting issues they face. This book is a sobering testament to the very real problems that so many people in our country deal with. Very well researched, written, and impossible to leave behind, Evicted a book for anyone who wants to learn more about society, housing issues or poverty.
    • 4/5
      I grew up in Milwaukee. I can picture 90% of the buildings and intersections referenced in this book. I was in high school during the time Desmond's research took place. I was in and around referenced landmarks during that time. There are memories there for me. That said, this was at times very hard for me to read. I kept picturing people on the street and buses, wondering if this was what they had been going through.

      I think this book is important for us to consider as a society. In the epilogue Desmond addresses how America should be addressing this crisis and I agree, if not with all of his methods, in that something needs to be done. This is a hidden social class that is only becoming more hidden.

      The research was well done (being first-hand I would hope so), and the text well-written. Again, highly suggest giving it a read.
    • 4/5
      This is the book chosen for our one community reads program. I don't know if I would have read it otherwise. Which would have been my loss. It is something that everyone should read or at least know about. Most of us take it for granted that we have a home. That we have a safe place to live. What I realized after reading this book is there is a large segment of the population who do not have what the rest of us takes for granted. It was jaw dropping to see what people go through and the difficulties they endure just trying to find a safe place, or even any place, to live. It also cleared up a lot of myths and untruths about homeless people and those who struggle to find a home. It is well worth your time to see life from a different perspective.
    • 5/5
      When this title arrived at the library, I read the description and knew I had to listen to it.Shelter is one of the first building blocks in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. And yet, so many struggle to keep a roof over their heads."Matthew Desmond takes us into the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee to tell the story of eight families on the edge."These are stories of real people, their struggle to feed themselves and their family after spending most of what they have each month on rent. Rent for substandard living conditions. On the flip side, Desmond interviews two landlords who rent out these rundown apartments, homes and trailers. This is how they make a living - they're not in it for charity. Eviction is the word, the threat, the reality.Oh, my heart broke as I listened to these stories. Yes, it's very easy to say, just get a job and manage your money better. And many of these tenants are desperately trying to do that. But easier said than done in many cases. Despair drives people to self destructive behaviour sometimes. I got so angry at the callous nature of the landlords, not seeing their tenants as people, but as dollar signs.Evicted is a microcosmic look at a bigger problem. Desmond immerses himself, collecting data, recording stories and proposing changes......this is an important book for everyone to read. We all need a safe place to call home.Dion Graham was the narrator and did an excellent job.
    • 5/5
      We're all familiar with the basic genetics of disease, and how each of us is predisposed to specific physical problems passed down to us in the mix of genes from our parents. Poverty and the associated problems might not live in our genes, but it is certainly hereditary. Matthew Desmond does a phenomenal job of planting us in the midst of the kind of poverty most of us never experience. We see how insurmountable the climb out of that kind of all-encompassing poverty can truly be. We also see the psychological damage this kind of life causes to those who are taught, whether intentionally or not, that they don't matter.In this book, we meet a number of people whose very existence revolves around the struggle to survive. When 70% of your monthly income goes to rent, your everyday concerns become things like whether to pay the electric bill or buy groceries. You are consumed by decisions in which the answers are always the lesser of two evils: starve or freeze. Then we meet the landlords. For many of these people, housing the poor is an easy and lucrative business. The landlords have the upper hand, holding the threat of eviction over their tenants to ensure they don't complain about the abysmal living conditions. While the author makes no judgments about these landlords, I certainly did.This book is well written, compelling, engrossing, and incredibly hard to read. The content made me ache inside. We are forced to acknowledge that we have become the kind of nation that pampers their dogs, worships celebrities and the wealthy, and ignores the human suffering in our midst. The poor have no voice, at least not one we hear. Make sure you read the closing chapter entitled 'About This Project'. Here Desmond explains how he not only shadowed the people he wrote about, but he moved right into their neighborhoods. He lived in their world and became part of their lives. He talks briefly about the depression he experienced, which I can only begin to imagine. His commitment to this project and the people is indeed remarkable. Read this book. Please. *I received an advanced review copy from Amazon Vine, in exchange for my honest review.*
    • 4/5
      Really solid read about a topic I knew so little about. Amazing research went into this and it showed. Depressing for sure and often shocking, but that's reality too.
    • 5/5
      Matthew Desmond spent time living among some of the poorest residents of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and he wrote about their experiences with unstable housing, repeated evictions or threats of eviction, and the dynamics of an economic system that supports the profitability of low-end housing but doesn't help people get out of the cycle of homelessness or near-homelessness. Dispassionate, heartbreaking, and balanced, Desmond's narrative follows real people living their real lives. He also provides data from sociologists and economists to augment his ethnographic exploration of the affordable housing crisis in our American cities. I listened to this as an audiobook, narrated by Dion Graham. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Evicted is a fascinating look at poverty in big city America. The focus here is on Milwaukee but I'm sure this takes place everywhere. Desmond has done an exhaustive job here. He looks at the issue of eviction from the renter and the landlord, the different situations blacks and whites encounter. I really had no idea evictions were so commonplace and almost expected. Desmond gives us an inner view of the cycle of poverty, how difficult it is to see a positive outcome for those trapped there. This book is highly recommended. I appreciated the author's attempt to offer ideas on how to improve the problem of housing for the poor, as opposed to many who study inner city poverty and just give the facts on what is happening.
    • 4/5
      This is a very interesting book. It strongly conveys the overwhelming struggles low-income individuals and families face, even beyond the issue of finding a place to rent and call home. Eviction is tied up with many other issues: drug use, lack of education, domestic violence, social behaviors, racism, and a whole slew of emotional and mental factors. It was also interesting (as well as frustrating) to learn more about the business side of things. Slum lords do exist. And while Desmond does explore poverty and even offers a few ideas of how to reduce it, I think that he is wrapped up in a very liberal ideology that doesn't quite make sense. He also only presents issues from the very extreme end of things. I wish this were a more well-rounded exploration of eviction, i.e. not only exploring the business end from a slum lord's perspective. If I were ever to own an apartment, you'd bet I would be screening and not taking in people who were recently evicted or had a long history of eviction, drug abuse, domestic violence, and arrests. It's just common sense. You have to protect your property and ensure the success of your business. I think there needs to be better government programs that help people get out of the slums AND the slum mentality (often the renters in this book did things that ruined their own opportunities for good housing!) while also protecting your average landlord. Overall, it was a very interesting--if biased and uneven--read.
    • 5/5
      This book gives an eye opening perspective of the lives of multiple families attempting to extricate themselves from the downward sucking spiral of poverty while all the while being virtually left to drown by those profiting on their vulnerability.One of man's essential physical needs is for shelter. The author follows eight families renting homes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as they face the difficult situation of losing that shelter through eviction. While each is certainly guilty of making some poor decisions, they all also have few resources to make any real change to remove them from the poverty level. Landlords recognize their desperation and exploit it by charging rent that is outrageous for the poor quality of housing provided. Drains and toilets that don't work, roofs or floors caving in, doors and windows that don't lock and are broken, and missing or inoperable appliances are common experiences for these renters. They fear asking for repairs or reporting their landlords due to their own vulnerability for reprisals either from the law or through eviction. The fear of losing their home threatens not only their need for physical shelter, but eventually erodes any confidence or self-control that they might have achieved. This desperation is made crystal clear as the author gives us a front row look at specific families' experiences.This is an important book about poverty and the isolation that those who suffer from it feel from the rest of the population in this American city. As the author points out however, it is a widespread and encompassing issue throughout our country. As long as others can profit from those who live in poverty and fear of losing their home, we will not be see an improvement in the fight against poverty.This is an important book that takes a first hand look at the lives of people who have lost everything including their homes. Each family makes some attempt to fix their situation, but ultimately the cards are too heavily stacked against most of them. They are not all sympathetic characters, and yet the feeling of lost hope and opportunity is heartbreaking and lamentable.I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the inner city and the cycle of poverty as well as the sociological implications of homelessness and the hopelessness that it breeds.My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.
    • 5/5
      I've never had troubles making money for rent - my life had worked out this way. It may have been a mix of choices and luck but I've never really thought about being evicted and what people go through when it happens. The people in this book are in that situation all the time - getting evicted because they have no money and either getting rejected for another home because of the eviction or getting worse and worse places. Some of them have children, some of them have drug issues and being kicked out does not help much, some of them had always lived in this vicious cycle. Which does not mean that they are blameless - it is hard to say what was the initial problem and what led to the other - poverty or drug abuse; homelessness or the loss of any hope. Desmond moved into one of the worst sections of Milwaukee in order to observe and try to understand homelessness and evictions. The story shifts between a few of the families that he met and all of them are broken people. Most of them actually have families but either do not want to burden them or are too ashamed to ask for help. And their stories are heart-breaking - even when they are to be blamed for the next part of their saga, it is still hard to read. And it is as hard to read the two stories of the renters that we get - there is greed but there is humanity (occasionally). And together with the personal stories we also get some analysis and history of the evictions in the United States. I am not sure that I agree with all the conclusions in Desmond's but it still need to be read. It is a story of a cycle that is very hard to break and in which once you enter, it is almost impossible to get out - a single eviction disqualifies you from a lot of options. There are also some chilling stories - a local law that existed well into the 21st century that allowed a landlord to evict a woman legally for calling the police when she is abused (now that law is thankfully changed) or the fire that killed a baby because everyone was too busy doing... nothing. And they are just part of the everyday life of people that are already vulnerable.As hard as it is to read some parts of this book, its story is important. Even if you think that people should pay for their own choices, eternal punishment should not be part of it. It is reporting from the front lines of an undeclared war - the war of poverty and hopelessness. Choices (especially bad ones) cannot be excused but it is not always all about choices. Throw a side dish of racism, discrimination and human greed and the situation gets even worse.Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      This book is not only so good, it is so important. The author immerses himself in a few rental communities in Milwaukee and delves deep into the problems facing low-income housing. He gives an honest and complex portrayal of the many parties and shows how people can't easily be categorized as "good" or "bad". Usually when I like a book this much I can't put it down, but that wasn't the case here. I often had to take breaks just to digest and reflect on what I had read. The book was almost too depressing but is helped greatly by the last chapter when the author looks a possible solutions to some of these problems. I really wish we could make this book required reading for every elected official.
    • 5/5
      There are books that I give 5 stars because the writing is stellar, or the story moves me to tears. And then there are books that get 5 stars because they change my world view; Evicted is one of those books. I picked this up because I live in Silicon Valley and with the growth of some high tech giants like Facebook, Apple and Google, housing prices have skyrocketed. The local news is filled with stories about teachers with long commutes or how today's young professionals will really have a hard time saving enough money for a down payment on a house. It is an important issue, but this book is not about that. Evicted is about America's poorest class. Desmond follows 8 families who live in the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee, who are really on the edge of survival. These are families who after paying for their rent, only have $20 for all other expenses in a month, who live in apartments that should probably be condemned, and barely survive. What's heartbreaking is most of these families have young children and it seems unbelievable in a country that is so wealthy and throws out so much, that we have families who live in these conditions. I'm so glad to have come across this book. It's an important one for everyone to read.
    • 4/5
      This is a well reviewed sociological book, about people experiencing evictions and homelessness in Milwaukee. I was not overly impressed by the book. I think maybe because I have worked in social work, with people living in poverty, for so many years, nothing in the book surprised me. Perhaps for people without that background, the book would be enlightening.Desmond follows a group of individuals experiencing poverty and housing insecurity, and most of the book tells about their individual stories. Rough stuff all around. I wished he had spent more time putting the stories into context, so that we had a better idea of how representative (or not) these individuals were. Most of that information was in the foot-notes, cumbersome to get to, and the last chapter. The last chapter was the most interesting to me. Desmond highlights the number of social problems that are made worse be housing instability. (disruption to children's education; inability to focus on other long-term goals, vocational, educational, or addiction recovery.) I thought he made a good case, but then, with me he was preaching to the choir. He advocates for creating a right to housing; and recommends housing vouchers as the way to do this. Apparently this has worked well in other countries. I would have liked more details on how this could work.
    • 5/5
      An amazing, important book -- no surprise at all that the author is a MacArthur genius. Desmond lays out its argument so clearly, neatly and heartbreakingly that it seems impossible to have ever not considered the critical role eviction plays in cyclical poverty cycles. My one quibble is that the writing is sometimes a bit forced, and I found it occasionally distracting (eg "before the city yielded to winter, it was as cold and grey as a mechanic's wrench"). But that is a very minor quibble compared to the breadth and scope of this excellent and important book! Very highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating insight into a key mechanism of the cycle of poverty. I had no idea evictions were so common or so easily obtained or an entire industry built up around evicting people. It's clearly a social justice issue brought into sharp and painful focus. Other countries have already figured this problem out. I can't say I really enjoyed these stories but I'm glad I learned about this issue and will never look at renting and poverty the same.
    • 5/5
      I won a copy of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City through Librarything's Early Reader program in exchange for an honest review. If I may be so bold as to say that Evicted may become a classic in social science literature. Sociologist, Matthew Desmond, chronicles the lives of landlords and tenants in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He intertwines facts and statistics to provide context to the stories presented in his work. It is a work of scholarship that reads like a novel.Personally, the book created an emotional undertow when reading it. Evicted depicted the hopelessness and downward spiral of poverty in America and the social, economic, physical and emotional toll of being evicted. The work also demonstrated the policy-in-experience of laws that are on the books, such as landlords being responsible for the criminality of their tenants. Tenants can be evicted if there are more than three emergency calls to a unit within a month. The result is that women in abusive relationships need to decide whether to get beat up or evicted. In one circumstance, one of the factors that lead to a family being evicted after living in an apartment for a month is that the mother called an ambulance because her son had an asthma attack. The police weren't even called, but it was labeled a 'nuisance building'' because of other contributing factors such as the babysitter knocking on a neighbor's door asking for weed and one of the sons throwing something out of a window. The family was notified of the eviction after the funeral of another family member. There are so many other tales like this.I want to know if anything has changed for anyone in the book. Is Scott still clean? What happened to Venetta in prison and after she was released? Has anyone found a place to call home?Evicted should serve as a wake up call for everyone to understand how finding a place to call home can be so elusive to those in grinding poverty.
    • 5/5
      After finishing Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, Matthew Desmond's study of what people living under the poverty level face in their struggle to keep a roof over the heads of their children, I've wanted to place a copy in the hands of everyone I know, and ask them earnestly to read it. It's an important book, on an issue that is largely hidden to those of us lucky enough to take secure housing for granted. It's also a tremendously readable book; while Desmond does present a great deal of research, the research is presented behind the stories of real people, over years, both tenants and landlords. And those stories provide the emotional wallop behind the dry statistics. When Desmond points out, for example, how difficult it is for an African American woman with a limited income to find any housing at all when she has children, it's not an abstract idea, but the life Arleen and her sons are living.Arleen had given up hoping for housing assistance long ago. If she had a housing voucher or a key to a public housing unit, she would spend only 30 percent of her income on rent. It would mean the difference between stable poverty and grinding poverty, the difference between planting roots in a community and being batted from one place to another. It would mean she could give most of her check to her children instead of her landlord.Desmond spent over a year as a fieldworker, living with the people he studied, living first in a trailer park that had been condemned by the city and then moving into a rooming house in the center of Milwaukee's north side. His words are informed not just by rigorous research, but by seeing for himself the effects of relentless poverty and the lack of a stable or even safe living environment. And once he'd taken the reader through the lived experiences of the people at the very bottom of our society, he provides the sobering numbers of how very many people are living under constant threat of eviction, and how it affects the families for years, especially the children. I can't recommend this book highly enough. Every American should be aware of what's happening within a few miles of their own home.
    • 5/5
      I think people like to break issues down into black vs white / good vs bad, when really life is much more complex than that. This book provides the painful nuances of what it's like to live in poverty, and humanizes the face of need. I truly don't see how any thinking, feeling person could read this and not be moved; this book shook me, in the same way that "Just Mercy" (Bryan Stevenson) shook me when I read it last year. How women who report domestic violence were subsequently evicted by landlords to appease law enforcement, and then couldn't get safe housing because of the evictions. How poverty and eviction affect children, neighborhood stability, employment. How, when a rental unit burns down, resulting in the death of an 8-month-old child, the landlord's concern appears focused solely on the loss of the building. My heart breaks for the tenants the author follows, and the seemingly unsurmountable challenges they face - I so wanted a happy ending for each of them. The author also addresses in a thoughtful way why the desperately poor do things that seem nonsensical to the more affluent, like using money or food stamps to buy "luxury" items instead of paying for necessities, including rent. Desmond's work does an exquisite job of putting us squarely in his subjects' shoes, and it is eye-opening.This book will make you squirm, feel outraged, crushed, hopeless, and maybe mad as hell....but also hopefully more compassionate and better educated about poverty and homelessness. Can't recommend it highly enough.