Evicted - Matthew Desmond

Sub-title:  Poverty and Profit in the American City

I found recently that Bill Gates had recommended books to read from 2017.  This was one of those.

Evicted is a painful read that provides first-hand reporting of the daily lives of people struggling to afford a place to live.  In the past few years, the cost of renting has gone from the recommended 30% of income to the reality of 60-70% for the poor reported on in this story.  This are ordinary people that never get ahead and instead remain in grinding poverty largely due to the way renting living space is conducted in America. 

The author spent over a year living with these folks in a dingy trailer park and seedy apartments in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, not a place where I would think of poverty taking hold.  He follows eight individuals through their multiple evictions or moves to avoid it.  He contrasts their situations with that of a landlord making six figure income by aggressively exploiting this market.  It's a stark picture of a court system and assistance programs broken and ineffective. 

In the epilogue the author offers some suggestions for changes in policy but the call to action I'm afraid falls on deaf ears. 

Published: 2016  Read: January 2018   Genre: Sociology