ꞙ𝓲𝕟𝕚𝓉ᶌ reviewed Evicted by Matthew Desmond
Review of 'Evicted' on 'GoodReads'
5 stars
Very interesting - the stories of each person are compelling.
Epub, 448 pages
English language
Published Aug. 12, 2017 by Broadway Books.
WINNER OF THE 2017 PULITZER PRIZE GENERAL NON-FICTION
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 book, 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 …
WINNER OF THE 2017 PULITZER PRIZE GENERAL NON-FICTION
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 book, 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 book 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. Source: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/247816/evicted-by-matthew-desmond/
Very interesting - the stories of each person are compelling.
Very interesting - the stories of each person are compelling.
An eye opener, or really, an eye popper!
I was conflicted over the way public help, (our tax dollars), was sort of taken for granted and the very real need for some sort of assistance for these people so they could get on their feet. There is abuse of funds and there is lives on the edge. I did not see, even at the end of this book, a sound way to prevent the abuse of funds while making funds available for those who desperately need it.
Depressing. Informative. Real. Good work by Matt Desmond.
I could not fully buy into the authors ideas on solutions at the end of the book but one must have a starting point and his is as good as any I've ever heard.
This book is on the annual list of both Bill Gates and Barack Obama. Highly recommended. I learned a lot about poverty in america, and how the lack of affordable housing hurts families. A close-up view of some difficult lives.
This is a book about the eviction crisis in America. It is an incredibly powerful, but ultimately very sad book. It really brought the stories of the tenants and the landlords to life in a very powerful way. The tenants in this book are all victims of our unwillingness to assist the poor with housing, even though housing costs continue to rise. People were living in places without stoves, refrigerators, heat, etc., because they had no choice. In some cases, even homeless shelters provided better services than one's own apartment.
The system, at least in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is rigged against tenants (and Wisconsin is not alone in this). Very few states have strong protections for tenants. Entire neighborhoods are torn apart by evictions. For some of the people in this book, their lot in life appears to be their own fault (addiction, inability to hold a job, etc), but eviction …
This is a book about the eviction crisis in America. It is an incredibly powerful, but ultimately very sad book. It really brought the stories of the tenants and the landlords to life in a very powerful way. The tenants in this book are all victims of our unwillingness to assist the poor with housing, even though housing costs continue to rise. People were living in places without stoves, refrigerators, heat, etc., because they had no choice. In some cases, even homeless shelters provided better services than one's own apartment.
The system, at least in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is rigged against tenants (and Wisconsin is not alone in this). Very few states have strong protections for tenants. Entire neighborhoods are torn apart by evictions. For some of the people in this book, their lot in life appears to be their own fault (addiction, inability to hold a job, etc), but eviction becomes a vicious cycle. You don't go to work because you're moving, and you lose your job. You lose your job, and you can't pay your rent and you get evicted. Landlords evict people for calling the police because of domestic abuse happening in a nearby apartment, because landlords get cited if the police show up too often at their properties. People lose their welfare benefits because they've moved and remembering to call the welfare office was the last thing on their mind. And then they get evicted. Landlords purposely refuse to repair property because it costs money, and if residents complain, the landlord finds a reason to evict them. In other words, no one wins but the landlords.
This book is incredibly depressing, but incredibly important. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in sociology, or just the plight of the poor in the United States.
Eye-opening. The book follows several families, using their lives to show the realities of poverty.
Social problems can seem intractable because they're the result of so many interlocking social factors and public policies that it's tough to know what to address first. "Evicted" illuminates this by doing a fantastic job of tracing the individual stories of a large cast of real-world characters and relating how they interact and the (sometimes flawed) thinking behind the decisions they make.
The author doesn't cast blame on any one group, but rather looks non-judgmentally at the motivations of everyone involved: landlords who often try to cut tenants a break but are managing their own expenses, tenants who are trying to make ends meet but find themselves dealing with unexpected complications, social workers running programs like addiction treatment that don't come close to meeting demand, and sheriff's deputies who try to be compassionate as they carry out their duties. At the same time, he doesn't absolve certain individuals who make …
Social problems can seem intractable because they're the result of so many interlocking social factors and public policies that it's tough to know what to address first. "Evicted" illuminates this by doing a fantastic job of tracing the individual stories of a large cast of real-world characters and relating how they interact and the (sometimes flawed) thinking behind the decisions they make.
The author doesn't cast blame on any one group, but rather looks non-judgmentally at the motivations of everyone involved: landlords who often try to cut tenants a break but are managing their own expenses, tenants who are trying to make ends meet but find themselves dealing with unexpected complications, social workers running programs like addiction treatment that don't come close to meeting demand, and sheriff's deputies who try to be compassionate as they carry out their duties. At the same time, he doesn't absolve certain individuals who make terrible decisions and others who try to profit off other people's misery.
On the whole, however, most are portrayed as good people just trying to get by, trapped in the cycle of poverty that evictions tend to make even more unbreakable. He also delves into that mechanism by describing the consequences of evictions (loss of government benefits, inability to access tenant legal protections like building codes, etc.) that help perpetuate the cycle. Particularly notable is the evident impact on the kids, constantly forced to switch schools with each move consequently forcing them ever further behind their classmates. As the author puts it, eviction is a cause, not just a condition, of poverty -- and he does an excellent job of laying out why. The book concludes with some proposed solutions, and a reason for optimism if we have the will to implement them.
This is one of the most depressing books I've read recently (and I've read a lot of depressing non-fiction.) But it's an important read - I really recommend it.
He follows a number of people in Milwaukee, WI to look at how poverty makes housing uncertain, and how evictions make things so much worse. He follows tenants as well as landlords. You get a peek into how they live their daily lives.
It is so clear how the incentives, both for tenants and landlords, are such that people are continually stuck in a cycle of sub-standard housing, evictions, and homelessness. And the timing and setting doesn't even address the issues that arise when housing is as expensive it is in some coastal cities. There are simple solutions to this problem - solutions we know are unlikely to be politically possible in this country.
Anyway, it's a really well written, engaging, …
This is one of the most depressing books I've read recently (and I've read a lot of depressing non-fiction.) But it's an important read - I really recommend it.
He follows a number of people in Milwaukee, WI to look at how poverty makes housing uncertain, and how evictions make things so much worse. He follows tenants as well as landlords. You get a peek into how they live their daily lives.
It is so clear how the incentives, both for tenants and landlords, are such that people are continually stuck in a cycle of sub-standard housing, evictions, and homelessness. And the timing and setting doesn't even address the issues that arise when housing is as expensive it is in some coastal cities. There are simple solutions to this problem - solutions we know are unlikely to be politically possible in this country.
Anyway, it's a really well written, engaging, and worth a read.
An astonishingly good book that examines the lives of poor residents of Milwaukee and the struggles they have with affordable, stable housing. (Landlords and their employees are also profiled.) It turns out housing has become much more unaffordable in recent years and losing your place of residence has all kinds of consequences. The author's research (both qualitative - the narratives that form most of the book) and quantitative is a model of ethical engagement with social problems. He doesn't leave us simply feeling despair, though - he has suggestions that could go a long way toward solving this solvable problem.
Here's a thought-don't read this book as you're about to move out of your long term apartment into your first home. It's...not cheerful. Powerful, thought provoking, and made me realize again how privileged I am, but definitely not a happy read.
This is a work of non fiction, the story of 8 families and their struggle to make ends meet, and their often times less than sympathetic slum lords.
I would say it is an unbiased look, showing both sides from the perspective of tenants and their landlords but in a matter of fact way.
The reason I wanted to read this book was because we struggled ourselves to make it through the recession and I was curious what it was like for these other families. However our own situation was quite different in that we were never on welfare or SSI and we were never criminals or drug users or from families with a long history of broken homes and unwanted pregnancies. Our financial collapse was due to my husband's employer living large and committing tax fraud, and deducting social security from everyone's pay while not actually paying social security. …
This is a work of non fiction, the story of 8 families and their struggle to make ends meet, and their often times less than sympathetic slum lords.
I would say it is an unbiased look, showing both sides from the perspective of tenants and their landlords but in a matter of fact way.
The reason I wanted to read this book was because we struggled ourselves to make it through the recession and I was curious what it was like for these other families. However our own situation was quite different in that we were never on welfare or SSI and we were never criminals or drug users or from families with a long history of broken homes and unwanted pregnancies. Our financial collapse was due to my husband's employer living large and committing tax fraud, and deducting social security from everyone's pay while not actually paying social security. When the company went into receivership and then out of business owing everyone 2 weeks pay we were already falling behind in our bills. So that additional month that it took from the time they closed to the time the first too small unemployment check arrived was brutal and the closest we have ever come to being homeless. We were not at all prepared to go 6 weeks with 0 income, and that coupled with the fact that there just plain were no jobs made for the most difficult year of our lives.
Anyway back to the book, this was a well written and well researched look at poverty in America and the landlords who make their living off the poverty stricken.