Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
by Matthew Desmond
Time to leave the novels and enter a sociological review on
the nature of poverty and the fight to keep a home in urban Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. The book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
is a post-doctoral study conducted on eight families, illustrating their
struggles to find affordable housing, keep affordable housing, and battle in the
court system (when they don’t pay their rent).
This book really resonated with me as my father, when he was alive, used
to bring me to a few of his court eviction processes for those renters who
failed to pay rent numerous times.
Desmond moved into the College Mobile Home Park where he was introduced
to a number of the families he followed.
He also spent time following two of the landlords, the people who ran
the trailer park, and also a black couple who become wealthy renting to people
who they had confidence would pay rent.
Poverty, drugs, family complications, weapons, job loss, and the
governmental system of how to support people without means are all topics
explored in this ‘documentary’ of sorts.
Desmond ends his book with a series of recommendations to help fix the
broken system. A thoughtful look into a
serious issue facing every urban center across America. The characters in the book are real and the
struggles they face are real. An
important issue in our society today.
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