Book Review Of Evicted: Poverty And Profit In The American City By Matthew Desmond

Home is where the heart is. It is the cornerstone of life that defines every aspect of one’s being. For many of us, it is the place where love is fostered, relationships are built, and rest is restored. Though it is easy to generalize this definition, for people finding themselves caught in the perpetual cycle of poverty, home looks much different. It is finding respite in the homeless shelter down the street, only to be kicked out a short period later, on account of your rowdy children. It is where the neighborhood boys gather to smoke joints and play cards in order to take their minds off the vicious effects of poverty they have faced for so long. It is the leftover loveseat in a woman’s living room whom you just met. In Matthew Desmond’s Evicted, there is great variety in the definitions of home, yet there is a common theme: each one has been stamped by eviction, a direct cause and effect of poverty in America.

The lives of eight families in Milwaukee, Wisconsin are the faces of eviction throughout Desmond’s book. According to Desmond, “There is nothing special about Milwaukee when it comes to eviction… This book is set in Milwaukee, but it tells an American story” (p.5). These families are from both the North and South sides of the city, trailer park and ghetto, white and black, several children and none at all. Yet they all face the same problem: living in a constant state of worry about when the landlord will come knocking at the door and turn their lives around in an instant. Desmond follows these families around for a year, seeing the challenges they face on a daily basis, being physically present in the seemingly uninhabitable buildings they call home, and witnessing firsthand how eviction is a cause, not just condition, of poverty (Desmond, 2017, p. 299). Through this personal immersion into the lifestyle of poverty and eviction, Desmond gives the reader a glimpse into this socially constructed phenomena that disproportionately affects the lower class, people of color, and women and families. His passion for these populations and the struggles they face is clearly evident throughout the book and the emotions he evokes in the reader, including myself.

Prior to reading this book, I was ill-informed about the details of eviction. I was raised in a middle class white family in the rural south, so eviction was not something I was personally familiar with. I was forced to confront my privilege and blatant ignorance early on in this book. From the very beginning, the role of Sherrena and Quentin was incredibly disturbing to me. The fact that they intentionally chose to rent to the black poor was a clear illustration of power and privilege in our society. The relationship they held with their tenants reinforced the notion that poverty is both a race and class issue across America. Though Sherrena was sometimes empathetic towards their tenants in the beginning, she and Quentin quickly fell into the cycle of capitalism and profiting off of the struggles of their fellow man. This was especially true when their bank accounts were low and governmental pressures high. They were quick to prioritize potential profit, even if that meant separating families or putting single mothers at risk of not being able to feed their children.

Arleen and Doreen, single black mothers surviving on government assistance, fell victim to Sherrena and Quentin’s money-making business. Eviction disproportionately affects black women, especially those with children. In any given month, 3 out of 4 people in Milwaukee eviction court are black. Furthermore, 3 out of 4 of the black population in attendance are women. These numbers are greater than the total of all other groups combined (Desmond, 2017, p.97-98). There are numerous reasons why black women experience eviction far more often that other populations. First and foremost, women are paid less than men. They are also typically the ones left to care for the children as a single parent. Lastly, as black men are incarcerated at higher numbers than any other population, the black women are left to fill their position, providing the only source of income, aside from government assistance. Desmond addressed this issue, stating, “If incarceration had come to define the lives of men from impoverished black neighborhoods, eviction was shaping the lives of women. Poor black men were locked up. Poor black men were locked out” (p. 98).

As someone who plans to make a career out of working with children and families, I was challenged by the relationship between children and eviction, as well as the lack of options families have in finding somewhere to live after being kicked out. This was illustrated in Arleen, Doreen, Venetta, and Ned and Pam’s situations. Following an incident with the police being called to her apartment on account of her oldest son, Arleen was evicted. This was not the only instance involving children and large families being forced to move due to disruptions and overcrowding. Since landlords’ primary goal is to make money in the easiest way possible, they often prey on the most vulnerable populations, which is oftentimes families with children. When this happens, mothers are forced to uproot their families, causing a plethora of negative consequences for their children. Relocating schools, moving into crime stricken neighborhoods plagued by violence and drugs, and forgoing meals in order to pay rent are all common effects that greatly impact the lives of families and children in the wake of eviction. Perhaps the most frustrating part of this dilemma is that poverty is a generational cycle that will have lasting effects on one’s financial, physical, and mental well-being.

Stepping into the lives of eight families from various areas in Milwaukee proved to be a successful tactic of Desmond’s, as it gave the reader a multi-faceted view of the problem of eviction. Having said this, I wish he would have provided an update on each of their situations at the end of the book. He mentioned Arleen and Scott in the final chapters, but left me curious about the status of the remaining families. Also, while I enjoyed the immense detail Desmond placed on the families and the struggles they faced, I think adding in commentary from other perspectives would have provided a holistic viewpoint on the macro-level. I would have liked to have heard from law enforcement officers in these areas, officials from non-profit organizations that provided aid to these families or turned them away, and perhaps school teachers who see effects of eviction manifest in their classrooms. However, this work was still incredibly powerful and truly transformed the lens in which I view homelessness and poverty in our society.

Desmond’s book paints a clear picture of how life is affected by eviction, as well as how eviction is affected by life. I oftentimes found myself forgetting that I was reading a nonfiction book. I simply could not wrap my head around the fact that this is real life for some people. Eviction is all they have ever known. As someone who has been hidden from the cycle of eviction all my life, I never fathomed these things to be happening right here in this country. It is common to read about poverty in developing countries halfway around the world, but to hear these stories and know that there are people right down the road facing similar situations is absolutely heart wrenching.

This work evoked great emotion in me, from the death of the young child in the apartment fire, to Larraine spending every penny of her food stamps on one meal in order to drown out the pain and suffering and find a sense of normalcy, if only for a few hours. I am grateful for this book and the way it has opened my eyes to a problem that has gone unaddressed for far too long. We certainly have a long way to go in the fight to reduce evictions in America but I truly believe this book, and the ongoing work of Desmond, is a huge step in the right direction.

Reference

Desmond, M. (2017). Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. New York, NY: Penguin Books.