The novel Evicted, for me, gave difficult stats a story and face. As seen during studies, sometimes humanity is lost. However, Matthew Desmond has taken the sensitive topic of eviction and housing instability in Milwaukee, from both sides of tenant and landlord, and delivered a powerful story of what it means to be disadvantaged. In this report, my personal feelings towards the book will be discussed, as well as, the topics of how the housing market is exploitative, the role that evictions play in destabilizing lives and communities, and a few options to help reduce the social problem of evictions.
Exploitative Housing Market Throughout the book, tenants are exploited in the quality of shelter, rental cost, justice system, and discriminative segregation. The quality of shelter and rental costs are exploited issues which reappear. Since the tenants experienced a history of evictions, they are trapped in a system of housing inequality. Furthermore, the tenants settle for what they’re accepted to, and landlords are given no incentive to update the properties. As a result, housing is poor, and
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First, looking at forced moves, just 24% are justified with a court processed formal eviction. While 48% of forced moves, are informal evictions from landlords. Therefore, every formal eviction is followed by two informal evictions (pg. 330). Including forced moves with the justice system, is to highlight the issue that’s not being met by our courts and law enforcement. In fact, to allow private landlords to informally evict and act in their behalf: is asinine. Secondly, is the way tenants of poverty and color are treated in civil court. Notably, 90% of the time landlords have attorneys present, while tenants 90% of the time, do not. Also of the tenants in civil court for evictions: one-third are contributing 80% of income to pay rent, 75% are African-Americans, and of them, 75% are women (pg.