Book Review: Evicted: Poverty and profit in the American city

• Author: Jason D. Spraitz
• DOI: 10.1177/0887403416644013
• Published date: 01 December 2016
• Date: 01 December 2016
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Criminal Justice Policy Review

2016, Vol. 27(8) 838 –842

© 2016 SAGE Publications

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Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Desmond, M. (2016). Evicted: Poverty and profit in the American city. New York, NY: Crown.

418 pp. $28.00 (hardcover). ISBN 978-0-553-44743-9

Reviewed by: Jason D. Spraitz, University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0887403416644013

In the “Epilogue” to Evicted, Matthew Desmond notes that suffering endured by our

country’s poorest families due to a forced move or eviction is shameful, but solutions

are available. If we are to enact the appropriate solutions, however, Desmond suggests

that we must correctly answer this question: “Do we believe that the right to a decent

home is part of what it means to be an American?” (p. 300). How one thinks about, and

ultimately answers, this question will be reflected in what you feel and experience

while reading this text.

Before getting to that question, which represents the essence of the book, Desmond

introduces the reader to a number of pseudonymed women, men, and children that

represent Milwaukee’s population of poor and destitute who are struggling with hous-

ing insecurity in the private rental market. Arleen and her two sons Jori and Jafaris

constantly struggle to make ends meet after nearly 88% of her monthly income of

US$628 goes to rent. Lamar, who has no legs, struggles to do the same with his two

sons DeMarcus and Eddy. The Hinkston family tries fitting eight people in a two-

bedroom duplex overrun with cockroaches. Pam and Ned have four daughters (with a

fifth on the way), which makes it exceedingly difficult to find rental housing despite

provisions in the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 (42 U.S.C. § 3601) that ban

discriminatory rental practices against families with children. Scott has lost his nurs-

ing license because of his opioid addiction. There are many others, including Larraine,

Crystal, Vanetta, Lenny, Office Susie, Trisha, Teddy, Lenny, Billy, and Heroin Susie.

Desmond also introduces the reader to Sherrena and Quentin, who own upward of 36

housing units and a shuttle service that transports people to see incarcerated family

members, and Tobin, who owns a 131-unit mobile home park that has come under the

scrutiny of Milwaukee’s Common Council.

This narrative journey through the lives of people on opposite ends of the housing

spectrum was the result of a 20-month ethnographic study that culminated in 5,000

single-spaced pages of field notes, thousands of photographs, hundreds of interviews,

and hours of tape recordings. Evicted also is informed by results from the Milwaukee

Area Renters Survey, a survey of approximately 1,100 renters between 2009 and 2011;

the Milwaukee Eviction Court Study, an interview survey with 250 tenants in eviction

court over a 6-week period in early 2011; nuisance property citations from the

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