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The cover of Evicted

Evicted

Matthew Desmond, 2016

Follow poor Milwaukee tenants and their landlords through eviction, and see how rent burdens, eviction courts and profit keep families poor, and why Desmond proposes a universal housing voucher.

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28 parts, about 38 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Argues that eviction is a cause of poverty, not just a symptom, and that someone profits from the rent poor families pay
  • Shows the housing crisis from both sides of the door, landlords and tenants, so you see how the system binds them
  • Matthew Desmond lived among the families and landlords in Milwaukee and backs their stories with his own surveys of tenants

Who it is for

  • Readers who want to understand urban poverty up close
  • Housing advocates, social workers and legal aid staff
  • Policy makers weighing rental assistance and tenant protections

What the summary covers

  1. Author's Note1 min
  2. Prologue: Cold City2 min
  3. The Business of Owning the City2 min
  4. Making Rent1 min
  5. Hot Water1 min
  6. A Beautiful Collection1 min
  7. Thirteenth Street1 min
  8. Rat Hole2 min
  9. The Sick2 min
  10. Christmas in Room 4001 min
  11. Order Some Carryout2 min
  12. Hypes for Hire1 min
  13. The 'Hood Is Good1 min
  14. Disposable Ties1 min
  15. E 241 min
  16. High Tolerance1 min
  17. A Nuisance1 min
  18. Ashes on Snow1 min
  19. This Is America1 min
  20. Lobster on Food Stamps1 min
  21. Little2 min
  22. Nobody Wants the North Side2 min
  23. Bigheaded Boy1 min
  24. If They Give Momma the Punishment1 min
  25. The Serenity Club1 min
  26. Can't Win for Losing1 min
  27. Home and Hope3 min
  28. About This Project2 min

Recommended by

  • Roxane GayAuthor of Bad Feminist and Difficult Women
    My God, what [Evicted] lays bare about American poverty. It is devastating and infuriating and a necessary read.

About the author

  • Matthew DesmondPrinceton sociology professor and MacArthur Fellow
    • Volunteered with Habitat for Humanity in Tempe as an Arizona State University undergraduate
    • Graduated from Arizona State University in 2002 with a B.S. with highest honors in communications and justice studies
    • Ph.D. in Community and Environmental Sociology from the University of Wisconsin Madison, 2010
    • After the Ph.D. he joined the Harvard Society of Fellows as a Junior Fellow
    • Formerly John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard
    • Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology at Princeton and principal investigator of the Eviction Lab
    • Elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2022

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