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A review by melissa_bookworm
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
5.0
I finished this book a few weeks ago but haven't had time to review it yet.
Evicted explains the rental crisis in America (Milwaukee specifically). It was eye-opening. Perhaps its my white, middle class, Australian privilege but the stories that Desmond tells shocked me. I listened to the audio-book and spent a lot of the time shaking my head in disbelief. The system is so broken. Expecting people to be able to pay up to 80% of their monthly wage/benefit to rent is simply ludicrous. It also seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy once a person is hit with an eviction notice, it stops them from accessing adequate/well-managed housing. This forces them to live in sub-standard (sometimes even squalor) housing for the same, if not more, rent than a livable dwelling because landlords can decide to put the caveat 'no evictions' on the application.
I flip-flopped a lot while reading this, perhaps this is a testament to how well Desmond is portraying each point of view. You feel bad for the landlords not being able to collect their rents, but at the same time feel the injustice of the tenant who is already on the poverty line but can't get anything fixed in their rental property without being evicted for causing problems.
There are obviously other issues that Desmond touches on. Addiction and criminal convictions, just to name a few. It was probably one of the best non-fiction books I've read this year.
Evicted explains the rental crisis in America (Milwaukee specifically). It was eye-opening. Perhaps its my white, middle class, Australian privilege but the stories that Desmond tells shocked me. I listened to the audio-book and spent a lot of the time shaking my head in disbelief. The system is so broken. Expecting people to be able to pay up to 80% of their monthly wage/benefit to rent is simply ludicrous. It also seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy once a person is hit with an eviction notice, it stops them from accessing adequate/well-managed housing. This forces them to live in sub-standard (sometimes even squalor) housing for the same, if not more, rent than a livable dwelling because landlords can decide to put the caveat 'no evictions' on the application.
I flip-flopped a lot while reading this, perhaps this is a testament to how well Desmond is portraying each point of view. You feel bad for the landlords not being able to collect their rents, but at the same time feel the injustice of the tenant who is already on the poverty line but can't get anything fixed in their rental property without being evicted for causing problems.
There are obviously other issues that Desmond touches on. Addiction and criminal convictions, just to name a few. It was probably one of the best non-fiction books I've read this year.