Evicted: poverty and profit in the American city

Abstract

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City By Matthew Desmond Desmond, M. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. New York: Crown Publishers, 2016. 432 pp. $28.00 paperback.Reviewed by Alen FejzicIn his most recent book, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, Matthew Desmond recounts the events he witnessed while conducting ethnographic research in Milwaukee from early 2008 to late 2009. The purpose of the book is to provide a better understanding of poverty and inequality in the United States. What makes Desmond's approach unique is that he focuses on the effects of housing, especially eviction, on individuals and society. Desmond provides three categories of perspectives: the perspective of landlords, the perspective of poor Black citizens living in Milwaukee, and the perspective of poor White citizens living in Milwaukee in each of the three sections of the book: Rent, Out, and After.The first section of the book address the issue of rent from the perspectives of both tenants and landlords. Desmond describes the various methods tenants utilize to pay their rent such as forgo paying their utility bills, borrowing money from friends and family, asking for help from organizations such as churches or charities, and trying to work out a deal with the landlords by working off the difference. Desmond provides various methods used by landlords to collect overdue rent such as through the legal system.The second section of the book deals with the eviction process and some causes for eviction. Desmond describes nuisance laws that have a negative impact on tenants who must call 9-1-1 for assistance.The third section of the addresses the difficulty of finding new housing after being evicted. Desmond provides several factors that make this process much harder for individuals. These include previous evictions, needing a significant amount of capital (social capita; in the form of references and financial capita; in the form of cash for the first month's rent, deposit, and last month's rent) to get approved for an apartment, and having children (landlords prefer tenants without children because they believe children would be loud and are more likely to damage the property). Some other factors include an individual's criminal history (landlords prefer tenants with no felonies or violent misdemeanors on their record) and race (landlords prefer to rent to White tenants).Throughout the entire book, Desmond offers statistics about certain welfare programs, various legislation having an impact on people living in poverty as well as on landlords, the costs of housing, and the effects of the Great Recession on people, especially racial minorities and individuals in poverty. Desmond notes that the price of housing on the north side of Milwaukee is about the same price as in other parts of the city, even though the housing on the north side is in much worse condition. Desmond demonstrates how landlords abuse the housing voucher program, a piece of legislation that was intended to help low-income individuals by having the individual contribute 30 percent of their monthly income towards rent and the government making up the difference, by charging more for their units than they are worth because they know that the government will pay most of the rent.Desmond highlights the negative effects of not having good, stable housing on individuals. The overall message of this book can be summarized in the following quotation by Desmond, ". …