It’s an important book. One of the most heartbreaking moments in Matthew Desmond’s “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City”— and there’s a shameful assortment to choose from — … This book ought to be required reading for anyone who wants to hold elected office in this country, no matter what level you’re at. Desmond follows the intertwined fortunes of eight families and a host of minor characters. I actually finished this last night, and since then have been trying to figure out how to process my feelings and thoughts about this book. What are the social costs of eviction? "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City" is probably the most important book that I have ever read!!! 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. Yes. Other sociologists – Kathryn Edin, for example – have found that single mothers often get help under the table from their children’s fathers, but Arleen, Doreen and Doreen’s adult daughter Patrice get mostly trouble from men, who are variously abusive, addicted, vanished or in prison. Public housing and housing vouchers are scarce. But the nice thing about time is that it... To see what your friends thought of this book. Please start by reading the GR book description here: Evicted was a really great read - both frustrating and fascinating. This book won the Pulitzer, and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and I can absolutely see why. He argues that universal housing vouchers and publicly funded legal services for the evicted (90 percent lack attorneys in housing courts) would help alleviate this growing, often overlooked housing crisis. Sherrena liked renting to the clients of a for-profit agency that handles – for a fee – the finances of people on disability payments who can’t manage on their own. Desmond lays out the crucial role housing plays in creating and reinforcing white privilege. By telling these stories, he shows how hard it is for the poor to find and keep decent, affordable housing. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Welcome back. Bill Gates CEO/Microsoft If you want a good understanding of how the issues that cause poverty are intertwined, you should read this book about the eviction crisis in Milwaukee. The author of several books, including the award-winning book, "On the Fireline," and "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City," Desmond was awarded a MacArthur "Genius" gran. The predatory behavior of the slumlords makes me angry, even while I sympathize with their desire not to be taken advantage of, cheated and ripped off. We have got to do better. Better yet, find the book and read it!!! This book is painful and necessary and eye opening. Two Decades of Answers from the Left (IB Tauris). Phone orders min p&p of £1.99. The judicial system and the role it plays is scrutinized, and the lives of 8 families are put on intimate display for readers to bear witness to. It's always hard to see and think about who has value in our society and the way laws and institutions play such a huge role in continuing to destabilize the lives of those who are already marginalized in other ways. The main condition holding them back, Desmond argues, is rent. ‘There is an enormous amount of pain and poverty in this rich land,’ argues American sociologist Desmond in this brilliant book about housing and the lives of eight families in Milwaukee, Last modified on Wed 29 Nov 2017 10.48 GMT. There’s no question we have a flawed system, and the cycle continues with no way out for those who are caught up in poverty and substandard living conditions. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City is a book written by Matthew Desmond. To order Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City for £16 (RRP £20) go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Eviction is a cause, not just a condition, of poverty . Desmond was also awarded a MacArthur “Genius” Grant in 2015. He is currently the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University and Co-Director of the Justice and Poverty Project. This book won a number of awards, including a Pulitzer Prize, for uncovering a housing problem in America that appears to disproportionately affect low-income renters and keep them in a cycle of perpetual uncertainty: eviction. Among the tenants in housing court, a third spend at least 80 percent. By examining one city through the microscopic lens of housing, however, he shows us how the system that produces that pain and poverty was created and is maintained. Eviction destroys communities: when people move frequently, they don’t form the social bonds and pride in place that encourage them to care for their block and look out for their neighbours. Money from government programmes intended to help the poor – welfare, disability benefits, the earned-income tax credit – go straight into the landlord’s pocket and, ironically, fuel rising housing costs. No easy answers here, but can we stop pretending that poverty is the result of bad life choices and that unsafe or lack of low income housing is because property owners are monolithically greedy and evil. This is what poor looks like in America. An eviction on your record makes the next apartment harder to get. "Evicted" Book Review: Eviction Is a Cause—Not Just a Consequence—of Poverty By: Maya Brod December 9, 2016 A year and a half ago, the Health and Social Policy team at Burness formed a book club to read and discuss the latest non-fiction, and occasional … Start by marking “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City” as Want to Read: Error rating book. Book Review - Evicted Poverty & Profit In The American City. What if the problem isn’t that poor people have bad morals – that they’re lazy and impulsive and irresponsible and have no family values – or that they lack the skills and smarts to fit in with our shiny 21st-century economy? [Between 2001 and 2014, real rents rose 7 percent while renters' incomes fell 9 percent. Desmond has written a brilliant portrait of Americans living in poverty. This is what poor looks like in America. It's a detailed picture of individual and systemic failure. The filthy and dangerous conditions are horrifying. There are situations that will break your heart, and situations that will infuriate you. 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. It's remarkably good, one of the best in years. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City was published in 2016 and brought Desmond to international prominence. 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. Public housing failures. Written by a Harvard sociologist, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City has the character development and dramatic drive of a first-rate novel. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. About the author of Evicted Poverty and Profit in the American City The American sociologist Matthew Desmond has explored the role of housing in the cycle of poverty. One thing that really stuck with me was the fact that landlords were getting fined for their tenants calling the cops and being nuisances, and how they applied that to people calling in about domestic abuse as well. Evicted by Matthew Desmond review – what if the problem of poverty is that it’s profitable to other people? http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/08/forced-out?mbid=nl_160208_Daily%20remainder&CNDID=37464528&spMailingID=8521477&spUserID=MTA5MjQwOTQzMjcyS0&spJobID=860859043&spReportId=ODYwODU5MDQzS0, New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2016 (fiction and nonfiction), Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street's Great Foreclosure Fraud, Book Editing, Author Coaching, Submit Your Book to Me, the one that Utah has used in recent years. 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. Although this book is about Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the author states this is a crisis effecting any large, urban city. This book frequently infuriated me, but it also raised in me a strong. It prevents people from saving the comparatively small sums that would let them stabilise their situation. Evicted – Book Review. Raised in Chicago I am aware of the housing crisis, remember well both the crime ridden, drug and gang infested, Robert Taylor homes and Cabrini Green. But you would be wrong. Even a paid-up tenant can be easily evicted. Poor black men were locked up. For a distinguished and appropriately documented book of nonfiction by an American author that is not eligible for consideration in any other category, Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000). In evicted, Matthew Desmond brings rigorous sociological research and ethnography to Milwaukee's inner city. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond (Crown) Share: Twitter Facebook Email. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible. Arleen Belle and Doreen Hinkston are black mothers clinging to the edge of low-wage employment; Crystal and Trisha are fragile young black women whose upbringing was violent and chaotic; Lamar is a genial black father of two who lost both his legs to frostbite when he passed out on crack in an abandoned house; Scott is a white male nurse who lost his licence when he stole opioids from his patients; Larraine, also white, is a slightly brain-damaged sweet soul. An evicted woman watches as employees of a storage company remove her belongings to place them on the pavement in front of her rented apartment. ... doubting the field’s possibilities to offer useful insights and ideas would do well to read Matthew Desmond’s new book Evicted. Raised in Chicago I am aware of the housing crisis, remember well both the crime ridden, drug and gang infested, Robert Taylor homes and Cabrini Green. Matthew Desmond’s gripping and important book Evicted tells disturbing stories in spellbinding detail in service of two main points. This just won The Pulitzer! We watch Jori go from a sweet, protective older brother to an angry, sullen boy subject to violent outbursts who is falling way behind in school. Shelves: multi-culti, non-fiction, awards It is no surprise that "Evicted" was the University Wisconsin-Madison's Go Big Red book read for 2016, a book chosen by the chancellor and worked into campus-wide discussions and events. Book Reviews An exhaustively researched, vividly realized and above all, unignorable book—after Evicted, it will no longer be possible to have a serious discussion about poverty without having a serious discussion about housing. Stop reading this one and go find those. Really horrifying and mind boggling that anyone would think that's a good policy even for reducing the amount people call the police. Black people have the worst housing in the worst neighbourhoods – the great fear of the trailer-park people, who are all white, is that they will end up on the black side of town. And racist ass Ned who made his biracial stepdaughters say "white power" w. The brutal truth of poverty in America is far more devastating than any fiction ever could be. The standard measure is that your rent should be no more than 30% of your income, but for poor people it can be 70% or more. Desmond writes, “Eviction does not simply drop poor families into a dark valley, a trying yet relatively brief detour on life’s journey. What if the problem is that poverty is profitable? It's always hard to see and think about who has value in our society and the way laws and institutions play such a huge role in continuing to destabilize the lives of those who are already marginalized in other ways. One is that growing numbers of low-income households pay crushing shares of their incomes for shelter, leaving inadequate sums for items as basic as medicine and food. By telling these stories, he shows how hard it is for the poor to find and keep decent, affordable housing. As with credit card debt and fines for driving misdemeanors, it's expensive to be poor - penalties for late payment and partial payment pile up. We (Americans) doom people to permanent poverty and a lower caste simply by not ensuring safe and adequate shelter that is affordable. This book describes the misery of living at the ragged edge of homelessness. It’s immersive sociological reporting at its finest—at the height of the recession, Matthew Desmond moved into some of the poorest sections of Milwaukee and immersed himself in the lives of the people who had little choice but to live there. If you are to read one non-fiction book this year it should probably be this book!!! “Every condition exists,” Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote, “simply because someone profits by its existence. I learned about poverty and poor renters, the eviction process, and scumbag landlords. I am ashamed of how little I knew about poverty and eviction. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Refresh and try again. Scott is a gentle nurse consumed by a heroin addiction. One thing that really stuck with me was the fact that landlords were getting fined for their tenants calling the cops and being nuisances, and how they applied that to people calling in about domestic abuse a. I finished this book a few days ago and it really made me feel devastated. This book frequently infuriated me, but it also raised in me a strong sense of compassion for people who are struggling and a desire to look for opportunities to help and advocate for fairer housing policies. Set in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it examines the lives of a number of people who deal with eviction and the property owners. There are no heroes in this book, neither the tenants or the landlords. There are no heroes in this book, neither the tenants or the landlords. He is the author of four books, including Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, which won the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, and Carnegie Medal, and PEN / John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction. Evicted tells the story of the eviction epidemic in America, focusing on eight families in Milwaukee. I read to relax. In one of the book’s many small sad moments, Arleen claims she receives child support in order to seem more stable and respectable to a prospective landlord. It is devastating and infuriating and a necessary read." We’d love your help. Evicted - Matthew Desmond. The first 80 percent of the book follows in detail the experiences of eight low-income families (including both black and white) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Yes. Three in four who qualify for housing assistance get nothing. No one can afford to put 80% of their income towards rent. Poor black women were locked out.”. So true. The filthy and dangerous conditions are horrifying. What is important is that Desmond takes people who are usually seen as worthless – there is even a trailer-dweller nicknamed Heroin Susie – and shows us their full humanity, how hard they struggle to retain their dignity, humour and kindness in conditions that continually drag them down. They way we treat the poor in this country is cruel. Following eight families, two landlords we are personally made. Of them, 10 percent devote at least half their income to shelter. 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. You’ll find it hard not to. We (Americans) doom people to permanent poverty and a lower caste simply by not ensuring safe and adequate shelter that is affordable. After he paid Sherrena his $550 rent out of his welfare cheque, Lamar had only $2.19 a day for the month. 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