Advanced Marginality creates “an empty space of competition and conflict, a danger-filled battleground for the daily contest of survival and escape” (Wacquant, 114) through certain economic, political and social factors that exploit the structure of the lower class. These weak structures become targets of unfair landlord practices as illustrated in Matthew Desmond’s book Evicted about spaces of advanced marginality in Milwaukee. Advanced marginality is formed through globalization. This displacement of jobs creates polarization between the lower and upper class (Sassen 14). Those financially stable leave the city, causing economic decline through loss of jobs, social program funding, and institutions. The heterogeneous, jobless poor in these …show more content…
The process of rooming together, as seen with Scott and Teddy, is rare because it ends in higher likelihood of evictions (Desmond 83). The Fair Housing Act, receives diminished government support and enforcement, as illustrated through housing discrimination against families with young children. Tenants like Pam and Arleen had to lie about the amount of young children in their family when searching for housing (230). The Housing Voucher program currently subsidizes housing, helps relieve homelessness and evictions, but is unavailable because of the waiting list and the stricter regulations it poses on the tenant and the landlord (Dikec 3). As a response, landlords, like Sherrena, are reluctant to accept it and tenants like Crystal do not qualify because of their eviction record. Poor tenants also have the use of representative payees, like Belinda, at their disposal to help maintain their finances. Unfortunately, this serves as another method of exploitation by leaving little money left over, since about seventy percent of their income goes to rent and placing in them in inadequate housing