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Evicted: Poverty and Profit in theAmerican City

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Author Matthew Desmondreleased his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, in 2016. The book takes place at the height ofthe 2008 financial crisis. Desmond examines eight families who livein a poverty-stricken part of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in order tobring light to issues such as extreme poverty, housing, andeconomic exploitation.

In the book, Desmonddiscusses how eviction causes poverty because it makes findinghousing difficult, and it can have devastating effects on thefamily. He also talks about how high-rent, substandard housing cancause health problems for families and about how a landlordsdecisions can affect families. Desmond goes into detail about theeffects of eviction on women. He also addresses the issue ofsegregation in Milwaukee.

He spent a lot of timeliving among low-income families and their landlords and heincluded many of them in the book. First, the book introducesreaders to Arleen Belle, a mother of two who cant afford her rent.She is evicted by Sherrena, a landlord who says, The hood isgood. Theres a lot of money there. Sherrena has a net worth ofabout two million dollars. Sherrena also rents to a young girlnamed Crystal, a disabled Vietnam veteran named Lamar and hisfamily, and Doreen, a mother of four. Tobin Charney is the landlordat the College Mobile Home Park on the South Side of Milwaukee,also worth about two million dollars. The mobile home park is runby the manager Lenny and Susie, an office worker. The mobile homepark is home to Lorraine, a 54-year old woman living with chronicpain and her brother Beaker; Susie; Scott, a recovering addictworking to be reinstated as a nurse, and his roommate Teddy; Pamand her boyfriend Ned, both crack addicts, with three daughters andone on the way.

Matt Desmond began writingthe book when he was studying sociology at the University ofWisconsin. He said he got his inspiration to write the book fromArleen, whose story is featured in the book. She and her two boyswere faced with impossible choices and watching her go througheviction after eviction made the author realize that eviction is acause of poverty. Desmond says he researched the book theold-fashioned wayhe lived among the people he was writing about,including a trailer park known as The Shame of the Southside anda rooming house in the inner city. He interviewed tenants andlandlords trying to get answers to his questions such as howprominent eviction is, what the consequences of eviction are, andwho typically gets evicted. Desmond says the books allows thestories of the people in the book speak for the issues at hand.Desmond hopes his readers will remember how those featured in hisstories went on living and found joy in the moments when they wereable to provide for their children.

A major theme in the bookis poverty, as the people in the book are either living in povertyor are making a profit off those who are. The author discusses thehousing crisis and believes that it is an American right to live ina decent home. Desmond wrote the book in the third personbecause he wanted the characters to speak for themselves and hedidnt want the focus to be on his role as an author, which hebelieves would distract from the message of the book.

Evicted: Poverty andProfit in the American City has been recognized andawarded many times since its publication. It won a Pulitzer Prizefor General Non-fiction in 2017 because of its deeply researchedexpose about how the 2008 financial crisis was a cause ofpoverty for some. In 2016, it won the National Book Critics CircleAward, and in 2017, it won the Andrew Carnegie Medal forExcellence, the Hillman Prize for Book Journalism, the Chicago Tribunes Heartland Prize, to name a few. The book has also been namedin many notable best lists since its release, including beingnamed a New York Times Editors Choice, one of Wall StreetJournals Hottest Spring Nonfiction Books,and many more.

Critics and readers alikehave been raving about Evicted: Povertyand Profit in the American City. Theauthor of Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay called the book is a necessary read.In an article about The Guardians Best Holiday Reads of 2016, Geoff Dyer said thebook is an essential piece of reportage about poverty and profitin America. Barbara Ehrenreich of the New York Times Book Review called it astonishing and said the author seta new standard for reporting on poverty.

Matthew Desmond, asocial scientist and ethnographer, is theauthor of the award-winning book Evicted:Poverty and Profit in the American City.

Desmond received hisbachelors degree in 2002 from Arizona State University. He went onto study at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where hereceived his masters in 2004 and his doctorate in 2010. From 2010until 2013, he was a member of the Harvard Society of Fellowsbefore becoming a professor at Harvards Department of Sociologyand Department on Degrees in Social Studies. He is currently aProfessor of Sociology at Princeton University.