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Evicted, March 2016
Hardcover / e-Book
Poverty and Profit in the American City
Crown
March 2016
On Sale: March 1, 2016
432 pages
ISBN: 0553447432
EAN: 9780553447439
Kindle: B010ZXKCAO
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction Political
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.
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