Book Review: Evicted – Poverty and Profit in the American City

“Evicted – Poverty and Profit in the American City” by Matthew Desmond is the second book I’ve read by this author, and what a compelling narrative it offers. Desmond’s exceptional ability to connect social issues with the real people facing them is extraordinary. The book, well-researched and a Pulitzer Prize winner in 2017, recounts events from May 2008 to December 2009 in Milwaukee, delving into the subject of evictions among poor families. The story is narrated not only from the families’ point of view but also from the perspective of landlords, courts, and government agencies. In the prologue, Desmond states, “Fewer and fewer families can afford a roof over their heads. This is among the most urgent and pressing issues facing America today. We have failed to fully appreciate how deeply housing is implicated in the creation of poverty.” (P. 5)

The central theme, as the title suggests, revolves around the inability of the poor community to obtain affordable and safe housing. Desmond vividly describes the deplorable conditions of many houses, stating, “More than 1 in 5 lived with a broken window, busted appliance; or mice, cockroaches, or rats for more than three days. One-third experienced clogged plumbing that lasted more than a day. And 1 in 10 spent at least a day without heat.” (P. 76) Regarding affordability, he notes that “the majority spent at least half their household income on rent. One-third devoted at least 80 percent to it.” (P. 97) Due to this dynamic, tenants receive eviction notices in high numbers, perpetuating this cycle.

The author presents staggering statistics, such as “In a typical month, 3 in 4 people in Milwaukee eviction court were black. Of those, 3 in 4 were women. The total of black women in eviction court exceeded that of all other groups combined.” (P. 97-98) Later on page 299, he reveals that “Among Milwaukee renters, over 1 in 5 black women report having been evicted in their adult life, compared with 1 in 12 Hispanic women and 1 in 15 White women.”

Throughout the book, Desmond narrates the lives of families struggling with poverty and inadequate housing. His first-hand, eyewitness perspective, having spent time living with these families, lends credibility and urgency to the subject. He details the struggles of single moms moving their families in and out of homes and shelters and of people battling depression and addiction without a way out of the cycle of poverty. Some of the stories are heart-wrenching.

Towards the end, the author delves into the philosophical aspect of the issue. On page 300, he poses the question, “Do we believe that the right to a decent home is part of what it means to be an American?” Later on the same page, he argues, “Decent, affordable housing should be a basic right for everybody in this country. The reason is simple: without stable shelter, everything else falls apart.”

Desmond points out a fact often overlooked: “there is a lot of money to be made off the poor.” He exposes various financial techniques designed to exploit the poor, such as payday loans, overdraft fees, and student loans for for-profit colleges, emphasizing how this is fundamentally unfair. (P. 306)

He concludes the book by proposing a universal housing program offering vouchers to low-income families and advocating for changes in policies mandating landlords to accept these vouchers, a program that can be manage like the welfare system.

Addressing the question of funding, he cites a Bipartisan Policy Center estimate that expanding housing vouchers would require an additional $22.5 billion, bringing total spending on housing assistance to around $60 billion. Desmond contends, “We have the money. We’ve just made choices about how to spend it. Over the years, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have restricted housing aid to the poor but expanded it to the affluent in the form of tax benefits for homeowners. In 2008, federal expenditures for direct housing assistance totaled less than $40.2 billion, but homeowner tax benefits exceeded $171 billion. That number, $171 billion, was equivalent to the 2008 budgets for the Department of Education, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Agriculture combined. Each year, we spend three times what a universal housing voucher program is estimated to cost (in total) on homeowner benefits, like the mortgage-interest deduction and the capital-gains exclusions.” (P. 312) 

On that same page, he delivers a powerful statement, “Most federal housing subsidies benefit families with six-figure incomes. If we are going to spend the bulk of our public dollars on the affluent— at least when it comes to housing— we should own up to that decision and stop repeating the politicians’ canard about one of the richest countries on the planet being unable to afford doing more. If poverty persists in America, it is not for a lack of resources.”     

Matthew Desmond’s books, “Evicted” and “Poverty, By America,” are powerful resources for understanding the problem of poverty in the United States. I highly recommend both books.

You can read my “Poverty, By America” book review here.

About the Author

Matthew Desmond is the Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology at Princeton University and the principal investigator of The Eviction Lab. After receiving his Ph.D. in 2010 from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, he joined the Harvard Society of Fellows as a Junior Fellow. He is the author of multiple books, including Poverty, by America (2023) and Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (2016), which won the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, and Carnegie Medal, and PEN / John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction. Desmond’s research focuses on poverty in America, city life, housing insecurity, public policy, racial inequality, and ethnography. He is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, and the William Julius Wilson Early Career Award. A Contributing Writer for the New York Times Magazine, Desmond was listed in 2016 among the Politico 50, as one of “fifty people across the country who are most influencing the national political debate.”1

  1. https://sociology.princeton.edu/people/matthew-desmond ↩︎

35 thoughts on “Book Review: Evicted – Poverty and Profit in the American City”

  1. Edward, thank you for sharing your detailed and well-written summary of what appears to be a most impactful book. Heartbreaking and senseless scenarios and in some circumstances predatory and egregious. I greatly appreciate the time and effort you put into sharing relevant topics and books with social significance with us. 🙏🏻

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  3. Good summary, Edward. Reading this book was a real watershed for me. I recommend it highly. People are really set up to fail, with high costs too start renting and no safety net before they’re out on the street. Housing is a key issue in the United States. There are not enough low and moderate income places to rent.

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    1. Thank you, Rebecca. You are absolutely right—this book has truly opened my eyes and put things into perspective. It’s a vicious cycle: poor families striving for decent housing, landlords doing the bare minimum to maximize profit, and a government entangled in layers of bureaucracy. There is a real need, not just for adequate housing but for a holistic approach to eliminate poverty. Some of the stories were difficult to read, yet they highlighted the necessity for childcare support for single parents, work/school programs to assist those who didn’t finish high school, rehabilitation programs to help addicts reintegrate into society, and more. All of these needs should be addressed through a coordinated effort at the local, state, and federal levels. It seems that’s the missing element, at least, that is the impression I gained from reading the book.

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            1. Well… good question. We, the people, need to do that. Everything is so transactional nowadays. Most of us grew up dealing with some tough circumstances, but for some reason, we forget about those things when we get to a position of power and have some extra bucks in our pockets. Let’s take landlords as an example. If a landlord knows that $500 is a fair rent (covering loans and other costs), why ask for $1,000? I understand a business needs to make a profit to survive, so perhaps I can understand going up a little and asking for $600, but $1,000? That’s how we lose track of the humanity behind the economy. It’s all about me and my money; the rest of the people do not matter.

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                1. Absolutely, and you know what’s sad about it? We outsource so many things that we couldn’t even produce enough rubber gloves during the pandemic because everything is produced in China. Yes, let’s bring factories back, protect national security, and provide reliable income to the American people.

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    1. Cindy, thank you for reading and commenting. You are absolutely right. After reading those two books, it got me thinking about what else I can do to help. I’ll be proactively looking for organizations in my community that are involved in finding solutions to this problem, and hopefully, I can contribute to the cause.

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  6. Awesome review, and disheartening as well. I can’t tell you how many Black families that I’ve worked with who fit the profile but are between a rock and a hard place with resolving their issues. There are so many layers. Thanks for recommending the author and his books.

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    1. Thank you for reading and commenting. Definitely, many layers and hard problem to solve because is not just housing, or lack of childcare, we need to address the poverty issue and figure out a sustainable solution.

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  7. Great reviews. Thanks. As it turns out I have both these books in my save for later baskets . I usually read poetry, art, some philosophy/religion. In this highly ideological age I don’t really trust books on issues. But these may be different. I probably will choose the one on poverty. Just discussing on X, the Great Society programs.

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    1. Thank you for your comments. I appreciate his books because he maintains a good balance, providing numerous notes and references for further study or to verify/validate his information. Another positive aspect is that he spent time with the people during his research. This means it’s not just a theoretical perspective; he actually witnessed the conditions and obstacles that these families face every day.

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  8. Excellent article. I would venture to say that the United States should pour more of the resources given to foreign countries into its own. Not saying we shouldn’t help our allies, but come on. Can we balance this better? Let me know if I am out of bounds here.

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    1. Thank you for your comments, and I don’t think that you are out of bounds. The author indicated the need to increase spending by around $22 billion to cover the cost of the vouchers. We could easily find that amount by closing some tax loopholes and reducing foreign aid a little.

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  9. I will say that I had to deal with a broken heater at the start of this winter. It took a couple days to get it repaired, through no one’s fault. Thankfully, it was not bitter cold, but it was certainly not pleasant by any means. I was running electric heaters 24/7 just to keep it livable. I can’t image what some of these poor souls do day to day. Thank you for another excellent review, Edward.

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      1. Yes, very much so. I also read a few times that aside from the obvious risk from temperature extremes, pipes freezing, etc., risk of heart attacks goes up significantly if a house stays below 60 degrees for too long. I had not heard a sweeter sound than my heater coming on after a couple days without. Definitely stressful even when you know relief is coming.

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