Evicted

I feel like I should give credit to Mike and Ann from Books on the Nightstand nearly every week at some point for letting me know about a book that I haven't yet heard of, and for prompting me to get to some titles a little quicker than I might have otherwise.

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the America City by Matthew Desmond is an up-close look at people who often face eviction.  I'd hate to say I enjoy Desmond's book, because it certainly is not a happy story. But, he does a fantastic job of making this problem personal by sharing about people's lives- their ups and downs, their joys and sorrows- all while connecting it to their housing crisis.

Desmond isn't just some reporter who showed up to interview a few people and then share their story.  His parents lost their family home at one point themselves.  And to make this story authentic, Desmond moved into the trailer park he was planning to write about.

He offers some suggestions on how the government would better be able to deal with housing for the poor, and how some of the solutions would actually save money in the long run. Just as we are not OK allowing people to starve, providing food for the poor, we also cannot be OK about people not having adequate housing.

It is true that many of the people Desmond writes about are not people I would hang out with or identify with, but they are all people who have had some very tough breaks and no way to recover from them.  

There are so many thoughts and discussions I could have after reading this book.  As I read it months ago, I am excited to finally get to talk about it with others.