Evicted: An intimate look into American poverty and the faces behind them
By: Michelle Yee
Tags: Politics, Self Improvement, Poverty, Nonfiction, Book Review

Milwaukee resident and her belonging that have been moved out of her apartment as a result of being evicted. Image from the “Evicted” exhibit (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Evicted is a riveting portrait of America’s lower class. Matthew Desmond is a sociologist that follows eight families in Milwaukee as they face eviction and struggle to find themselves stable shelter. While this story is full of statistics, what it is able to do is bring to life the stories of those behind the data.

I initially picked up this book because I was also looking for reading material that would both be educational and engaging. I care deeply about economic empowerment and now living and working in NYC, I’m often faced with some of the greatest wealth disparities in the world. It was a topic I was keen to learn more about. I discovered Evicted when I saw it reviewed by Bill Gates on his reading list and that it had also won a Pulitzer Prize. No spoilers — but I’m glad I decided to pick up my own copy.

There are many learnings to Evicted. Areas that stood out to me were the damaging cycles of eviction, an eviction’s impact beyond the individual, and this issue attributed to the lack of affordable housing.

The cycle of eviction

The stability of the home (including the physical shelter) is the foundation for families to build a life of success. Success as defined by excelling in school, maintaining a job, addressing all basic needs, and saving for the future. A single eviction wreaks havoc on a family’s life and impacts can be felt two years on. The cost of eviction entails financial and emotional hardship: missing work to find a new home and/or fight the eviction in court, worrying about providing shelter in the meantime for the family, added costs to store or reclaim possessions from an eviction, eviction records, and credit loss.

Evictions deeply impact neighborhoods

“The public peace — the sidewalk and street peace — of cities is not kept primarily by the police, necessary as police are. It is kept primarily by an intricate, almost unconscious, network of voluntary controls and standards among the people themselves, and enforced by the people themselves.” — Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities

The poor don’t see their living arrangements as permanent. High churn affects the entire city block and in turn the neighborhood, resulting in a “perpetual slum” where there isn’t a steadying force of residents invested in developing and keeping the street safer.

There is a lack of affordable housing

What was most shocking to me is that the majority of Americans who live in poverty rely on the private rental market. That being said, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Milwaukee’s highest-poverty areas was only $50 less than the citywide median! Why is there so little difference in the rental cost between middle and lower class neighborhoods? Making things more challenging, conventional personal finances say we should be spending closer to 30% of our income. The lower class spend 70–80% of their income on rent. This leaves little room for unforeseen expenses and once they’re behind on rent, it’s nearly impossible to make it up.

Evictions are clearly a complex problem. I don’t pretend to now have insight on how to solve the issue nor do I think Evicted provides clear next steps. What this book has done successfully has shined a light on the gravity of evictions and how they can undermine the lower class’s ability to move up and out of poverty. Personally, I’m interested in taking steps to better support children that are likely impacted by these living environments. Whether it’s through donating time or money, I will see how I can help provide greater stability to children in my community during their formative years. Additionally, I would like to learn more about why these problems disproportionately affect African-Americans and will add The Color Law to my 2021 reading list.

For those looking for a thought-provoking read that is highly pertinent to today’s American discourse, I’d strongly recommend checking out Evicted.