ipl-logo

Removed In The Book 'Evicted' By Matthew Desmond

711 Words3 Pages

Have you ever had to choose between eating or having a roof over your head? If you answered no, you are one of the fortunate ones who most likely fall somewhere between middle class to upper class. Those who answered yes are a part of the millions of Americans who are currently facing a fairly new problem that has a light upon it – the lack of affordable housing. In Matthew Desmond’s book Evicted, he writes about numerous eviction stories of families or individuals for several different reasons. Simply knowing about evictions are upsetting, but reading about real-life stories and how it impacted their life is horrifying. Without a place of safety – a place to call home – everything else seems to no longer matter. It’s like looking in a mirror and seeing beauty just to watch it shatter and fall to the floor. Imagine trying to pick the pieces of glass off the floor and put them back together. There are too many pieces to make it whole again, just like there are too many factors that play into being evicted and getting back on your feet. It’s not impossible, but it’s difficult. Unfortunately, predicaments such as hunger, gentrification, and lack of necessary …show more content…

He eventually lost his apartment and job. They moved around from shelters to abandoned houses, tearing up the carpet as blankets. Mid-winter and high, he climbed into an abandoned house and when the high wore off, he couldn’t climb out. He jumped out of the second-floor window. Lost both of his legs due to frostbite. He has yet to fall back into his bad habit since. (Page 27). What do we do in these situations? Do we still help? This just shows that not every case is the same, but does that mean that some reasons are “better” than others? Some people are “more deserving?” I’ll leave that up to you to decide. Who knows, maybe even if Lamar had affordable housing, he still could have gone through this

Show More
Related
622 Words | 3 Pages

Evicted by Matthew Desmond is a novel that tells the stories of families struggling to pay the rent in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In this book, just like Missoula, the stories are intertwined with each other. So far the stories have followed two landlords: Sherrena Tarver and Tobin Charney. Sheerena owns property all over the predominantly black north side of Milwaukee. She is strong and caring, but I think she is not fair to her tenants.

Read More
1157 Words | 5 Pages

Abram Auguste Law School Personal Statement I was awoken by the screech of tires, and the grisly thud and crunch of metal colliding. I have only experienced a few fender benders, but I woke to a different feeling. The time moved slow and sound amplified as the car flipped and went airborne over the guard rail lobbing thirty feet onto opposing traffic on the highway. As I lie distorted in the rear seat, a combination of blood and gasoline drenched my clothes and leaked down my flesh wounds.

Read More
1387 Words | 6 Pages

Poverty is difficult to fully understand without experiencing it directly. Sociologist Matthew Desmond attempts to provide a different perspective on this issue through the lens of those struggling with poverty. This ethnography covers the lives of eight families and many others living in the College Mobile Home Park, a poverty-stricken area in Milwaukee, one of the poorest cities in the U.S.; Desmond lived there for one year, diligently taking notes and recording the experiences of the people he encountered. In Evicted, Matthew Desmond describes the interconnectedness of housing and poverty and highlights the exploitation of the poor through the scope of eviction. Throughout the book, he describes the factors contributing to the cyclical nature

Read More
173 Words | 1 Pages

Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Kids :Summary In “Our Tired, Our Poor, Our kids”(2001), Anna Quindlen claims that “There are many homeless mothers and children”(332).Quindlen addresses this issue by needing to find homes for many children the past month (“thousands”) ,as well for those families that wait by their belongings until found a room to sleep. The population of homelessness people isn’t decreasing it’s increasing rapidly. She reveals these problems in order to inform people the outrages numbers of homeless families ,and also “explains some of the effects of homelessness on children,emphasizes the importance of affordable housing,and touches on the effects of welfare reform on homelessness”(329).

Read More
927 Words | 4 Pages

In more than one storyline of the novel’s featured families, a housing eviction leads to job loss, which Desmond uses as an example of how eviction can produce class inequality. One such character was Ned, a white man who loses his job after missing two workdays to help his family move; Desmond argues that this is not an isolated incident. If given an eviction notice, the renter must dedicate a significant portion of time to resolving their eviction with the court, finding a new place to live, and moving their possessions to the new location. Most cannot find new housing right away, forcing them to move their property into a storage

Read More
796 Words | 4 Pages

In the second half of his book Evicted, Matthew Desmond continues to explore the underprivileged housing world and the social and economic strains it places on the poorest inhabitants of Milwaukee, WI. Through case studies of various families, Desmond uncovers the inherent link between victims of substance abuse, mental illness, race and ethnicity discrimination, poverty, and their subsequent housing discrimination. Although each chapter delves a little deeper into the situation of a certain individual or family, Desmond’s voice as a researcher is not present until the Epilogue.

Read More
1256 Words | 6 Pages

Matthew Desmond’s book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, reveals the dire reality of renting leading to evictions and poverty by telling the stories of multiple people. There are multiple issues within this topic that Desmond focuses on such as discrimination. Desmond tells the stories of people from different backgrounds, of different genders, and of different races. The book is all about poverty, human nature, human relationships, and human hopes. Due to the nature of this book, it is crucial that the events are examined through a socio-cultural lens.

Read More
579 Words | 3 Pages

There are many circumstances that lead to homelessness. Homelessness has an issue in today’s society and is largely ignored. Everyplace you see around out urban society, parks and streets it is likely that you will witness a homeless person struggling to survive. Over the years, homelessness in the United States has become a dangerous social problem because of the choice made by a person, unemployment and lack of education, and addiction. In Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls explains how her parents led them to live a homeless life.

Read More
595 Words | 3 Pages

One of the largest issues the country is facing today is homelessness, and almost nothing is being done to stop its growth. Jeannette Walls was once a victim of being homeless and poor. She wrote about what it was like growing up poor and always on the move in her memoir entitled The Glass Castle. She tells about her experiences travelling across the country, never finding a permanent home. She often encountered obstacles such as always being hungry, being shot at, and in some cases sexually abused.

Read More
573 Words | 3 Pages

Should We Help The Homeless? As once written by Andrew Carnegie, “The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship” (Carnegie) Homelessness has been around for centuries, just like the debate over Americans helping the homeless or letting them fend for themselves. There are many aspects must which should be considered in the argument of whether we, the American people and higher class, should help them or not; such as the ethical values of the situation from both the poor and those involved in helping, the cultural and social causes, and effects on their lives.

Read More
237 Words | 1 Pages

People who are homeless encounter much ridicule in our society’s. The stigma homelessness carries have in some ways devastated the dignity of so many of whom have fallen victim. One might think that the homeless had been involved in some misdeeds that ended them up on the streets or assumed that laziness is the culprit and have resolved to panhandling. We attempt to justify our responses by rehearsing why our need is greater or suppose that whatever means given would not be used for purposes intended and so we talk ourselves into or out of meeting the needs of others.

Read More
778 Words | 4 Pages

We must explore the underlying causes of this crisis such as poverty, mental health issues, addiction, or a lack of affordable housing, recognizing them all as fundamental aspects driving people into destitution. By doing so, we open opportunities for more meaningful interventions which will ultimately help individuals break out of these dire circumstances. Today’s leaders must strive for justice when making decisions. This

Read More
386 Words | 2 Pages

In the United States homelessness has been a substantial problem for decades. The reason for homelessness is greatly debated especially

Read More
178 Words | 1 Pages

Homelessness is a product of social inequalities. Karl Marx stated that the capitalist society produces two prominent classes which are in conflict with each other, bourgeoisie and proletariats. The bourgeoisie are the oppressors who own the means of production and the proletariats are the oppressed workers who labor for the bourgeoisie. Capitalism is distinguished not by privilege but instead by individuality of property ownership and that those who create the conditions of the oppressed group express this power in the form of laws that function to serve the bourgeoisie’s interests (Marx, 2004, p.129).

Read More
1813 Words | 8 Pages

He breaks away, climbs a rope, tumbles into a box, and falls dead asleep’. (RB p. 138-39) Then ultimately he is thrown overboard, while ill, off the coast of Queensland, Australia – Then, one day, too ill to care what happened to him and with no knowledge of what part of the world he was in...they put him overboard; he moved out of the shadow of the ship that tilted and creaked abobe him, out of its coolness, away from the faces at the rails. (RB p.140)

Read More

More about Removed In The Book 'Evicted' By Matthew Desmond

Related Topics

Open Document