Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Author:
Genres: Business & Money, Politics & Social Sciences
Book Type: Paperback
Author:
Genres: Business & Money, Politics & Social Sciences
Book Type: Paperback
This is not a fun read, but it's an important one.
Desmond's investigations into the housing situation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the first decade of the 21st century exposes the systematic abuses in a housing market biased in every way against low-income renters. From obscene profit levels taken by landlords to one-sided court proceedings to protective systems that increase rather than decreasing hardship among the population they are designed to serve, the story is thought-provoking, brutal, and depressing.
Desmond keeps his focus tightly on two groups of people -- the very poorest of the poor, many of whom spend upwards of 80% of their income to obtain substandard lodging, and on two landlords with large investments in inner-city rental properties. He also looks at the ways in which the struggle to keep a roof over one's head impacts social relations, and clarifies the incredible disruption caused by eviction actions.
No one comes out of this war zone unblemished. Certainly not the reader.
His recomendations to ameliorate the situation may or may not be practical, but they assign an entirely new meaning to the term "housing crisis".
Desmond's investigations into the housing situation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the first decade of the 21st century exposes the systematic abuses in a housing market biased in every way against low-income renters. From obscene profit levels taken by landlords to one-sided court proceedings to protective systems that increase rather than decreasing hardship among the population they are designed to serve, the story is thought-provoking, brutal, and depressing.
Desmond keeps his focus tightly on two groups of people -- the very poorest of the poor, many of whom spend upwards of 80% of their income to obtain substandard lodging, and on two landlords with large investments in inner-city rental properties. He also looks at the ways in which the struggle to keep a roof over one's head impacts social relations, and clarifies the incredible disruption caused by eviction actions.
No one comes out of this war zone unblemished. Certainly not the reader.
His recomendations to ameliorate the situation may or may not be practical, but they assign an entirely new meaning to the term "housing crisis".
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