Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

In this work of non-fiction, Matthew Desmond, a Harvard sociologist, takes us to Milwaukee where we become intimately engaged in the lives of eight impoverished families. Among these, we meet Arleen- who is trying to raise her children on food stamps, Crystal – who has been in and out of the foster system since she was a young child, and Scott – who is a successful nurse-turned heroin addict who lost it all (among others). We also meet their landlords Sherrena (who owns many dilapidated inner-city units) and Tobin (the owner of a run-down trailer park). Through thorough and expansive research, Desmond walks the reader through the lives of these people — their decision making processes, the choices (and non-choices) that led them to where they are, and the laws and loopholes that work against the poorest and most vulnerable members of our society. To me, Evicted was an extremely worthwhile read, for many reasons. First, I do not read a lot of non-fiction, because the writing is often too clinical to hold my interest. This book though, reads like a novel. Desmond lived with, and visited with many of these families on a daily basis for three years. We come to know them as we would a friend, and he tells their stories in a chronological, plot-like way. I wanted to know what would happen next to each of them– I felt invested in their well-being, and frustrated when I read about their lives’ numerous drawbacks. Desmond did an excellent job of writing this book from a non-biased view. I personally believe this to be an accomplishment in and of itself; since he witnessed most of the noted events first-hand, I can only imagine how difficult it was to keep his opinion free and clear of his writing. Yet, he managed it and I appreciated that. I despise when an author tells me, either implicitly or explicitly how I am supposed to feel about about an event. In doing this, an author is not only suggesting that his/her thought and opinion is the “right” opinion, but also that I’m not intelligent enough to draw my own conclusions — which is an assumption based in condescension and inaccuracy, and is wholly insulting. Desmond left his own opinion out of his reporting – he recalled these events masterfully – completely and chock full of detail, but without any implied judgement. His writing is powerful, and allows the reader to form their own opinions. Further, Desmond provides the reader with significant background information regarding the laws around food-stamps, eviction processes, and the inaccessibility of resources for some of our cities’ most impoverished residents. Because he explained these laws and processes in layman’s terms, I was able to understand why a person might make the decisions that they did. I value logic, and when I cannot understand the logic behind one’s decisions, I become frustrated and impatient. For example, one of the women spent much of her food-stamp allocation for the month on lobster tails and lemon meringue pie. For one meal. Normally, I would think, “Now see — this, this here is the problem.” The author understood that his reader would feel this way, and went on to explain just how difficult it is to drive oneself out of grinding poverty. “People lived with so many compounded limitations that it was difficult to imagine the amount of good behavior or self-control that would allow them to lift themselves out of poverty….those at the bottom had little hope of climbing out even if they pinched every penny. So they chose not to. Instead, they tried to survive in color, to season the suffering with pleasure.” This actually made sense to me. I cannot even begin to imagine feeling so low, and with the author’s careful and logical explanation, I realized that until I live it, I shouldn’t judge it. This brings me to my final point. I admittedly understand little about our nation’s housing laws and the difficulties that are faced by those who live within the throes of urban decay. I know how expensive apartments are (the Boston area has some of the highest rents and mortgages in the country), and how exhausting the housing search can be. However, even at my poorest moments, when my bank account was completely in the red, I was not without my soft resources (successful parents who’d rather not watch their child become homeless or starve, friends with the ability and willingness to help, a graduate level education and the ability to procure a job that would pay me a steady salary). In short – I can’t fathom the struggle. The people highlighted in this book do not have these soft resources — they are completely on their own. The author surely knew that most of his readers, (with the ability to spend $13.99 on his book for their reading pleasure), might not be able to comprehend the lives and struggles that these people are living — but he made me want to try. I wasn’t left with any anger over the spending or perceived wasting of tax dollars; rather, I finished the book with a confused feeling – a “in what universe does that law make sense?” type of sentiment. I’m sure this was Desmond’s hope for his book, to provide his reader with an eye-opening experience which, at least in my case, was successful. To read more of my reviews, go to my blog at [...]

I've served the poor community with a lot of my own personal time. I've seen firsthand what poverty can do to the lives of people. I've helped moved evicted substance addicted individuals out of homes and seen what a disastrous living condition looks like. So for me, the book wasn't necessarily an eye-opener for me in that regards. But I thought it did a good job illustrating how hard it is for people to break the cycle of poverty and eviction plays a big role in it. I thought it was a good raw, heartfelt documentation of the lives of a handful of poor and their landlords. I see people who have this book low ratings missing the point of the book. The author is not excusing the individuals in this book culpability in their struggles (i.e. buying lobster and crab on food stamps as Larraine did is asinine), but how one eviction can lead to another etc. He illustrates the problem with unaffordable housing the people in Milwaukee are experiencing. If you're familiar with the topic, it's not unique to Milwaukee. The author took 20 pages at the end to explain why he wrote the book, that his aim wasn't to offer all the solutions, but to encourage more research to be done on how to solve the problem. I think he did a great job tackling this from a different perspective. People who rate this low because they thing he's blaming the landlords, excusing the poor, or that he expects the government to solve all of these problems totally and completely miss the point of the book. He reported on what he saw in these specific individuals lives. He illustrated how not having enough money to buy basic necessities leads you down this path of desolation and its difficult to pull yourself out of it. My takeaway is that there is a broken housing problem in this country. In such a rich nation, we have millions living the way people are in this book, and as you can ascertain from even some of the reviewers, we don't care. His overall point is housing should be affordable. We should figure out a way to make it such by not eliminating landlords' right to make profit. He floated some solutions in the last 10 pages or so, but that wasn't his focus with this project. It's unfair to be critical about him brainstorming a few solutions when that was .03% of the book's content. All in all, it is a worthwhile read. And the author does a good job in furthering the on-going conversion in the housing crisis in this country.

Excelente libro! Muy bien documentado, evidenciando una realidad muy difícil para aquellos afroamericanos que viven apenas por encima de la línea de pobreza.

Just started reading the book. It is very insightful and interesting

As a anti poverty activist this book made so much sense to me. More people need to understand the impact homelessness has on those living in poverty. Information and personal stories were presented in a way that helps the reader to understand the realities of so many people . Sad to say that the cost of living keeps going up- housing prices and rentals will be going up- and the number of people who will end up homeless will also increase. This is a very serious problem.

Excellent, compassionate and well constructed account of the travails of poverty and the private rental market in America. The stories are compelling without being ghoulish or voyeristic, and the graphic pain mediated by the facts and context of the situations. It is clear the author is familiar enough with his subjects to be underneath the skin of his story. Highly recommended reading for anyone who questions or despairs about the divide between wealth and equity in our developed economies.

unbelievable that all that happens in the US, once the greatest country in the world.