Evicted

Book 53 of my 2017 Reading Challenge
read from August 9 - 27

**I received a copy of this book from Blogging for Books and would like to thank the author and/or publisher for the opportunity to read and honestly review it**

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond

Summary (via Goodreads)

From Harvard sociologist and MacArthur "Genius" Matthew Desmond, a landmark work of scholarship and reportage that will forever change the way we look at poverty in America
 In this brilliant, heartbreaking book, Matthew Desmond takes us into the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee to tell the story of eight families on the edge. Arleen is a single mother trying to raise her two sons on the $20 a month she has left after paying for their rundown apartment. Scott is a gentle nurse consumed by a heroin addiction. Lamar, a man with no legs and a neighborhood full of boys to look after, tries to work his way out of debt. Vanetta participates in a botched stickup after her hours are cut. All are spending almost everything they have on rent, and all have fallen behind.
The fates of these families are in the hands of two landlords: Sherrena Tarver, a former schoolteacher turned inner-city entrepreneur, and Tobin Charney, who runs one of the worst trailer parks in Milwaukee. They loathe some of their tenants and are fond of others, but as Sherrena puts it, “Love don’t pay the bills.” She moves to evict Arleen and her boys a few days before Christmas.
Even in the most desolate areas of American cities, evictions used to be rare. But today, most poor renting families are spending more than half of their income on housing, and eviction has become ordinary, especially for single mothers. In vivid, intimate prose, Desmond provides a ground-level view of one of the most urgent issues facing America today. As we see families forced  into shelters, squalid apartments, or more dangerous neighborhoods, we bear witness to the human cost of America’s vast inequality—and to people’s determination and intelligence in the face of hardship.
Based on years of embedded fieldwork and painstakingly gathered data, this masterful book transforms our understanding of extreme poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving a devastating, uniquely American problem. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible. 

My Opinion
Must. Read.  His description of the project, as well as the research that he put it (literally walking the walk) bumped this to 5 stars for me.

I hesitated ordering this because I knew it would be brutal and I was right, especially Part 2. There were so many people interviewed and affected it was good because the reader doesn't get too involved in one person's situation but also bad because it shows what an epidemic this is.  In the end I knew I couldn't ignore this read and I'm glad I read it.

There were success stories and the epilogue gives some solutions and hope.

A Few Quotes from the Book
"Some kids born into poverty set their sights on doing whatever it takes to get out. Jori wasn't going anywhere, sensing he was put on Earth to look after Arleen and Jafaris. He was, all fourteen years of him, the man of the house."

"If 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."

"If a poor father failed his family, he could leave the way Larry did, try again at some point down the road. Poor mothers - most of them, anyway - had to embrace this failure, to live with it."