Evicted
Poverty and Profit in the American City
Book - 2016
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The Most Popular Items of 2018
We've run the numbers for 2018, and library staff has put together lists of the most popular fiction books, non-fiction books, and DVDs in the library's collection. In the fiction category, readers love Minnesota authors like John Sandford and William Kent Krueger, who each have two titles in the top 25. The non-fiction list is topped by this year's adult Read Brave title, Evicted. … (more)
Evicted Discussion Questions
Have you noticed eviction having an impact on your neighborhood? In Evicted, Desmond makes it clear that many factors coalesce around eviction. Which of these do you think is the biggest issue in Saint Paul? Which issues do you think could be most easily addressed? Desmond has suggested that a massive expansion of the housing voucher program could alleviate much of the housing crisis –… (more)
From Library Staff
AHCC Book Club: January 22, 2019.
Central Library Book Club: February 2019
The hardest part about reading Evicted was coming to the realization that, more often than not, both sides, tenants and landlords, are only doing what is best for themselves financially, socially, or emotionally. In each of the followed characters’ story arcs, there is solid logic behind most of ... Read More »
Evicted by Matthew Desmond is the 2019 Read Brave nonfiction selection. A 2017 Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel, it follows eight Milwaukee families struggling to pay their rent around the 2008 financial crisis.
From the critics

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Quotes
Add a QuoteIf incarceration had come to define the lives of men from impoverished black neighborhoods, eviction was shaping the lives of women. Poor black men were locked up. Poor black women were locked out.
There are two freedoms at odds with each other: the freedom to profit from rents and the freedom to live in a safe and affordable home.
Summary
Add a SummaryBetween 2007 and 2009, the American housing market was shaken by the subprime mortgage crisis, in which banks foreclosed on millions of homeowners who could not keep up with their rapidly inflating mortgage payments. But another group of people is deeply affected by the trauma of displacement on a more regular basis: the renting poor. Many of these families are spending between fifty and seventy percent of their monthly income on housing, and even a small crisis can easily cause them to fall behind on the rent, making them subject to eviction. Sociologist Matthew Desmond takes the reader into two of Milwaukee’s poorest neighbourhoods, one predominantly white, the other mostly black, and spends eighteen months examining what happens when landlords evict those who have fallen behind on the rent.

Comment
Add a CommentEye opening account of renting while poor. It has been awhile since I have lived in a rental, I have never tried to do it on welfare, with kids, having been evicted because husband didn't pay rent before beating me up and damaging property and taking off- and with no family to help me out. This book not only shows white privilege but middle class privilege, highly recommend.
A devastating but necessary exploration and examination of housing and the cycle of poverty that keeps our poorest citizens continually poor and oftentimes unhoused. It also examines the intersections of poverty, eviction and race. A very necessary and increasingly relevant read.
Extremely eye opening. Devastating read. It is a testament to the ravages of untethered capitalism. I also recommend "Incarceration Nation". Another eye opener.
As compelling and haunting as it is heartbreaking, this one will stick with you for a little while
Great book. Sad subject matter that is excellently researched and written about. A must read on a problem that is only growing in America.
Matthew Desmond's "Evicted" is, honest to God, probably my new favorite book. It somehow manages to be emotionally gripping (definitely cried a few times), unflinchingly factual, and cautiously hopeful all at the same time. It's so, so worth the read, and sparks a really needed conversation about housing as a human right in the United States.
I was surprised when I read Matthew Desmond’s nonfiction novel, Evicted. Desmond, a sociologist, followed eight families in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as they struggled with poverty and eviction. I really enjoyed the way in which Desmond discussed the cycle of eviction. He explored all sides, working hard not to paint a particular party as the culprits of poverty. It was hard to read about the lifestyle that real people suffer through. I think it was really eye-opening to the ways in which poverty can occur. It is not necessarily self-inflicted and is a problem that is nearly inescapable. I think Desmond did a great job at explaining how multi-faceted eviction is. For anyone that wants to better understand a very different culture that exists in the lower class, Evicted is the right book to read. Emily, grade 12, of the Yorba Linda Teen Book Bloggers
I read this book on the recommendation from the Library Director, and it is wonderful! It really sheds light on the housing crisis in America (who can afford rent these days, anyway?), and gives a voice to those who cannot afford it.
Since housing is a basic human right, how can we do this to those who need it the most, and how can they live in the deplorable situations they're forced to live in?
🏘️📚🌧 Housing is a basic human need. It irrevocably shapes our lives and our destinies. It also can be a lucrative and, at times, cruel and devastating business. This landmark nonfiction work tells eight stories of families who were swept up in the process of eviction. Along the way, the book sheds new light on the myriad social currents, large and small, that have brought American society to the brink of an alarming housing crisis. The people whose stories are told within— tenants and landlords alike— are expertly brought to life though the author’s masterfully descriptive and empathetic writing. I was completely engrossed in this astonishing book. The stories it tells seem so familiar yet they reveal something new about who we are as a society; about power, privilege, and the meaning of home. 📖
This heartbreaking and hard to put down book is an eye-opening look into the affordable housing crisis affecting so many lives today. I particularly enjoyed the author’s ability to tell the stories of his subjects without making himself a character. He acknowledges that there is no simple solution to the lack of affordable housing, but does offer an afterward with some solutions, including expanding the voucher system. Highly recommended.