Evicted – Matthew Desmond

We had another great meeting last week on a rather difficult subject. The book Evicted, by Matthew Desmond, was an easy book to read but the subject was really hard to swallow. Maybe that means it wasn’t that easy to read. Evicted is exactly what you would think it’s about – people getting evicted from their homes. What’s so sobering is that it was based on real people and real events that are far too common in our country. While the book was focused on Milwaukee, it could have happened almost anywhere.

The writer, Matthew Desmond, now a professor at Princeton University, won a Pulitzer Prize for this nonfiction book. After reading it, I can see why. The meticulous research required to get the real facts meant that Desmond actually lived for more than a year in the same areas he was writing about. There’s no better way to write about a subject than to experience it firsthand.

He includes in his book accounts of people like Arleen, whose rent (excluding utilities) was 88% of her welfare check. Or there’s Crystal, who has no belongings except what she can carry in a bag and has mental health issues. Pam and Ned keep getting their rental applications turned down because they have children. Doreen lives with broken appliances and holes in the wall rather than call the landlord to fix them – she’s afraid she’ll get kicked out. These are just a few of the tenants mentioned in the book.

Then there’s two landlords featured. There’s Sherrena, who charges high rents for places most of us would never live in but she knows the tenants can’t find other places to live. There’s also Tobin, the owner of a trailer park who gives away “free” uninhabitable trailers just so he can collect monthly lot rents.

Because of the high rents and inability to find lodging in better neighborhoods, it becomes a downward spiral for the tenants that they just can’t climb out of. When people are evicted, often their belongings are left on the curb or taken to a storage facility where they pay another fee to house the items until they can collect them. Many of them forfeit those belongings after missing one payment. It’s just hard to fathom.

It’s a book well worth reading and a subject just begging to be understood. Here’s the author’s website if you want more information: http://www.evictedbook.com/media. I encourage everyone to read the book if you haven’t already. You will learn something.  I sure did.

Next month’s book is The Bonesetter’s Daughter, by Amy Tan. I expect this will be another rousing discussion when we hold our meeting on Sep 26. See you then!

Take Care,

Donna