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The last book that I read this summer was Evicted, by Matthew Desmond. The shines the light on the startling reality that fewer and fewer people are able to afford home ownership. Desmond writes, “Today, the majority of poor renting families in America spend over half of their income on housing, and at least one in four dedicates over 70 percent to paying the rent and keeping the lights on” (4). In the book, Desmond humanizes the eviction process and tells the story of 8 families from the eyes of the landlord and the tenant. Desmond shows the landlord’s thought process and how they are forced to survive relying on the payment of others, and Desmond shows the tenant’s struggle in order scrounge up enough money for rent whilen dealing with
Matthew Desmond’s Evicted takes a sociological approach to understanding the low-income housing system by following eight families as they struggle for residential stability. The novel also features two landlords of the families, giving the audience both sides and allowing them to make their own conclusions. Desmond goes to great lengths to make the story accessible to all classes and races, but it seems to especially resonate with people who can relate to the book’s subjects or who are liberals in sound socioeconomic standing. With this novel, Desmond hopes to highlight the fundamental structural and cultural problems in the evictions of poor families, while putting faces to the housing crisis. Through the lens of the social reproduction theory, Desmond argues in Evicted that evictions are not an effect of poverty, but rather, a cause of it.
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.
The lack of having or finding a home is a enormous setback in getting that “American Dream” that is so talked about and for the oppressed it just makes it harder to achieve that mesmeric
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.
During the Great Depression, my family and I went through difficult times for about ten years. I was unemployed and couldn’t pay for our home. In result, we became homeless and we don’t know where to go. Though some families allowed us to move in together under one roof, sometimes allowing strangers in homes can bring some difficulty and stress so I declined. So, because of this we are forced to live in squatter settlements called Hoovervilles (shacks that housed millions of unemployed).
The question of housing was always important in the poor communities. Most rents in the US are too high for them to pay. People, who live bellow the poverty line, often have to give almost all of their income to the landlord. So they stay without enough money for food, education and their children. For example, in “Evicted” one of the characters, Arleen, can’t spend time enough time with her children, because she needs to deal with housing problems and she doesn’t have enough money to buy good nourishment nor Christmas presents for her boys.
The article “The State of Homelessness in America” provides
It is hard to imagine life as a homeless family. I hope that I’ll never have to move my family from shelter to shelter as some families must do every day. According to the essay “Homeless” by Anna Quindlen, we should take more time in our lives to see the pain that homelessness creates. I agree with Anna Quindlen’s assertion that a home is everything. A home can provide certainty.
Public Policy on Housing Discrimination Executive Summary Housing discrimination and segregation have long been present in the American society (Lamb and Wilk). The ideals of public housing and home buying have always been intertwined with the social and political transformation of America, especially in terms of segregation and inequality of capital and race (Wyly, Ponder and Nettking). Nevertheless, the recent unrest in Ferguson, Missouri and in Baltimore due to alleged police misconduct resulting to deaths of black men brought light on the impoverished conditions in urban counties in America (Lemons). This brings questions to the effectiveness of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in devising more fair-housing facilities (Jost).
In the United States homelessness has been a substantial problem for decades. The reason for homelessness is greatly debated especially
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).
New York City is seen as a beautiful place to visit but the reality is there’s an ugly side to the city and it’s known as homelessness. In New York it is so common to see a homeless person in the train station or on a train and on the streets sleeping. This problem has been increasing ever since the Great Depression and we need to do something to decrease the number of this population and put a full stop to it. The majority of the New Yorkers just walk past them and instead of giving them left overs they decide to throw out the food and keep moving. Not only are these people suffering due to hunger, extremely poor hygiene and inhumane living conditions but they are also victims of assault and discrimination.
In South Florida, you come across countless homeless people every day. Many of them didn’t expect for this hardship to come upon them, and struggle to get back on their feet. A job that pays minimum wage can hardly compensate a household for them, not to mention the essential items they will need to sustain. Not only do homeless people struggle for success, but also someone who lives solely. This kind of individual can be living uncomfortably and miserably while barely being able to afford rent.
The issue of homelessness in America has been evident since the early 1600’s. Across the country men, women and children spend their nights on the streets not knowing when or if they will ever find a permanent home. States and federal officials or city councils have tried to alleviate or at least reduce the number of homeless over the last several decades at a city, state or national level but it continues to be an ongoing problem. There is a multitude of factors that account for the growing homeless population that affects each state in the country differently. Though there are many contributing factors that contribute to the amount of people living on the street at any given night in the U.S.
