Why are eviction rates rising in the United States? Why is the poverty-eviction cycle so hard to break? Can anything be done to help the situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Imagine living with the knowledge that you could lose your home at any time, for any reason. In Evicted<\/em>, sociologist Matthew Desmond explains that millions of Americans live every day under the threat of eviction, and it takes a heavy toll on them both psychologically and financially.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keep reading for our brief overview of Desmond’s book Evicted.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Imagine living with the knowledge that you could lose your home at any time, for any reason, and have to find a new place to live at a moment\u2019s notice. In his book Evicted<\/em><\/a>, Matthew Desmond explains that millions of Americans live every day under the threat of eviction, and it takes a heavy toll on them both psychologically and financially. Evicted <\/em>also explains the numerous ways that poverty and eviction reinforce each other, creating a cycle that traps people for life.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n While researching Evicted<\/em>, Desmond spent a year living in a Milwaukee trailer park and spoke with many low-income tenants living under the threat of eviction. He recorded their experiences, as well as his own, to provide unique insights into what it\u2019s like to live in poverty under an exploitative landlord. Desmond won a Pulitzer Prize for Evicted<\/em> (2016), and his next book Poverty, by America<\/em><\/a> <\/em>(2023) became a #1 New York Times bestseller.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Desmond is a professor of sociology at Princeton University. He\u2019s also the founder and Principal Investigator of Eviction Lab<\/a>, an organization that collects and freely shares data about evictions in the United States<\/a>. Desmond has also written several books<\/a> about racial discrimination in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This guide will start by explaining why Desmond believes evictions are out of control in the US today and how that came about. We\u2019ll then discuss how poverty leads to eviction and eviction leads to poverty, creating a cycle that\u2019s nearly impossible to break out of. Next, we\u2019ll explore the roles of predatory landlords<\/a> and racial discrimination in the cycle of poverty<\/a> and eviction, then conclude with a few of Desmond\u2019s ideas about how the US could empower its citizens to break that cycle permanently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Our commentary will provide additional background information about poverty and eviction\u2014both historical information about how we got to the current situation and statistical information showing how these issues impact people in the US today. We\u2019ll also examine the pros and cons of some potential solutions, such as expanding welfare and housing voucher programs. Finally, we\u2019ll present some counterpoints to Desmond\u2019s ideas from more fiscally conservative schools of thought, focusing on individual opportunity and personal responsibility instead of Desmond\u2019s focus on systemic problems and solutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Desmond begins by saying that evictions in the United States are more common now than they\u2019ve ever been\u2014not even the Great Depression saw eviction rates as high as today\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this section, we\u2019ll discuss two major causes of this eviction crisis<\/a>: low wages and the loss of solidarity among renters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Desmond says one major reason evictions are so common now is that income hasn\u2019t kept pace with the cost of living: As rent, utilities, and other necessities have become more expensive, wages have remained stagnant for the US\u2019s poorest people. <\/strong>As a result, low-income earners often struggle to pay their rent.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n To highlight this problem, Desmond explains that a standard benchmark for living comfortably is that rent should cost less than a third of a family\u2019s income. By contrast, low-income families might spend anywhere from 50% to 70% of what they earn on housing, leaving very little for food and other essentials.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, saving money isn\u2019t possible with such a tight budget. This means that any unexpected or unusual expense\u2014such as an emergency room visit or a car repair\u2014can cause low-income families to fall behind on rent, leading to eviction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Desmond adds that government benefits for low-income families, collectively called welfare<\/em>, have stagnated just like wages have. As a result, these programs\u2014which are designed to help people live comfortably while unemployed or underemployed\u2014now provide barely enough for people to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The author adds that because welfare benefits are means-tested (only available to people with less than a certain amount of money and assets), those benefits discourage people from saving money even if they\u2019re able to.<\/strong> In other words, someone with low-income work and <\/em>welfare benefits might actually be able to start saving; however, if at any point they have too much in their bank account, they won\u2019t be able to collect benefits anymore. As a result, they\u2019d soon end up in an even worse financial situation than before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second reason Desmond gives for evictions happening so frequently is that renters no longer stand up for each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He explains that even during the Great Depression, evictions were relatively rare because renters responded to them with large-scale protests. <\/strong>Renters would organize to protect each other because they had a sense of solidarity toward one another. That solidarity stemmed from feelings of shared ownership in their neighborhoods and homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By contrast, Desmond says that many people today\u2014even those in low-income households\u2014consider poverty and eviction to be the rightful consequences of personal failings such as laziness or bad decisions. In other words, people blame individuals (including themselves) for their problems, instead of recognizing the systemic failures that trap people in bad situations.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Along with overlooking the systemic problems keeping them in poverty, many renters now view landlords in a positive light: They\u2019re just grateful to have housing, rather than angry about being exploited by predatory renting practices. We\u2019ll discuss those practices and how they came about in the next section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The author adds that renter solidarity has also fallen apart because low-income renters are now too busy<\/a> with their day-to-day problems to fight back against the root causes of those problems.<\/strong> For instance, someone who has to work two or three jobs just to survive probably won\u2019t have the energy to protest for higher wages, even though better pay would allow them to work less and live more comfortably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Naturally, poverty is a major cause of evictions\u2014however, Desmond says that eviction also causes or worsens poverty. This happens because eviction disrupts people\u2019s lives and finances, making things even more difficult for those who were already struggling.<\/strong> As a result, many low-income people find themselves trapped in a cycle of poverty<\/a> and evictions that can be nearly impossible to break out of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scrambling to find a new place to live is already difficult and stressful, but the author says that eviction creates problems well beyond that. First and foremost, people are likely to miss work or benefits appointments while searching for a new apartment. If they can\u2019t find anything in the same area, they\u2019ll probably lose their job entirely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, people with evictions on their record have an even harder time finding someplace new to live, because most landlords will view them as an unacceptable risk. This drives them to seek housing with landlords who specialize in exploiting low-income renters<\/strong>\u2014we\u2019ll discuss these predatory landlords in the next section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Desmond adds that desperate people may turn to stealing and other criminal activity to make ends meet. However, having a criminal record makes it even more difficult to find housing and work in the US, which further perpetuates this cycle. Therefore, many former prisoners have no choice but to go right back to crime after getting out of prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Desmond says that the cycle of poverty and eviction also causes serious harm to people\u2019s mental and emotional well-being<\/a>. In fact, eviction often leads to clinical depression and even suicide.<\/strong> There are several reasons for this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First of all, not having a stable home is extremely stressful. Low-income renters live with the constant threat of losing their homes and possessions, which causes them a great deal of anxiety. Second, people who move frequently don\u2019t get the chance to form strong bonds in their communities, which leaves them feeling isolated and vulnerable. These effects are especially pronounced in families with children, where parents have to worry about keeping their children clothed, fed, and in school on top of everything else.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The author also says that bad living conditions, such as squalid apartments and frequent moves, are extremely harmful to self-esteem. People who live in those conditions for a long time start to feel like they\u2019re supposed to live that way.<\/strong> They come to believe that they shouldn\u2019t <\/em>have decent housing, for reasons that might range from personal shortcomings to the will of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Desmond says that predatory landlords are another major factor in the poverty and eviction cycle. Predatory landlords target low-income people and other vulnerable demographics, extract as much wealth as possible from them, then evict them<\/strong> once they start missing rent payments. Now that many people are landlords as their full-time job, these exploitative practices have become more common because professional landlords are seeking to maximize their profits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To give some examples, predatory landlords often neglect needed repairs and maintenance because they want to spend as little money as possible. They\u2019ll also frequently make verbal agreements with tenants who can\u2019t pay rent, promising to accept only a portion of the rent or labor in exchange for the money they can\u2019t pay\u2014then, after getting what they can from the tenants, the landlords will evict them anyway.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The author provides some background by explaining that the concept of a professional landlord is relatively new\u2014in the past, most landlords were simply people who decided to make some additional money by renting out their unused property. The 2008 housing crisis<\/a> accelerated the move toward professional landlording: <\/strong>People bought up foreclosed properties at a fraction of their value and turned them into rentals for low-income families.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It may seem counterintuitive to target low-income people in order to make money, but Desmond explains that it works because low-income people are effectively trapped: Their only choices are to be exploited or to be homeless.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Predatory landlords take advantage of their tenants\u2019 vulnerability by threatening them with eviction if they cause any trouble, such as arguing with the landlord or reporting code violations. The landlord might simply decide that the family is too disruptive and evict them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Renters with higher incomes aren\u2019t nearly as vulnerable to exploitative landlords, because they have the resources to leave and find better housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, Desmond says that low-income renters often have little to no legal recourse against predatory landlords.<\/strong> Even if a renter can find a lawyer who\u2019s willing to represent them for free, they can\u2019t afford to take the time off from work to appear in court, so they have no opportunity to plead their case or defend themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Poverty and eviction can happen to anyone, but Desmond says that minorities\u2014especially Black people\u2014are disproportionately affected by them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Civil Rights Act of 1968 made housing discrimination<\/a> illegal, meaning that landlords couldn\u2019t reject people on the basis of race or create racially segregated neighborhoods<\/a>; it also prohibited discrimination based on sex, nationality, and religion. However, housing discrimination persists in numerous ways. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Desmond explains that although it became illegal to explicitly <\/em>discriminate based on people\u2019s demographics, landlords could accomplish the same thing using perfectly legal screening procedures. For a small fee, landlords can obtain a person\u2019s criminal record, eviction history, credit score, and other information allowing them to decide whether that person is worth renting to. Because of the numerous disadvantages that Black people and other minorities face\u2014which we\u2019ll explain in more detail in the next section\u2014these screening practices hurt minorities by locking them out of many opportunities that their white neighbors can take advantage of. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, most of the same landlords who rejected low-income people also rejected people with criminal records, especially violent criminals. As a result, over decades and with landlords making countless such decisions, modern American cities became strongly segregated: Wealth and safety became concentrated in certain areas, poverty and violent crime in others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Desmond adds that discrimination is a self-perpetuating problem. The people who are forced to live in poor neighborhoods have reduced access to education<\/a>, healthcare, and other necessities.<\/strong> As a result, it\u2019s unlikely that they or their children will ever be able to improve their situation\u2014they\u2019ll be stuck in the same low-wage jobs (or have no jobs at all), using every resource they have just to stay alive. <\/p>\n\n\n\nOverview of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The US Is Experiencing an Eviction Epidemic<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Reason #1: Wages Don\u2019t Match the Cost of Living<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Welfare Benefits Aren\u2019t Enough<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Reason #2: Lack of Solidarity Among Renters<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Poverty and Evictions Create a Vicious Cycle<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Psychological Impacts of the Poverty-Eviction Cycle<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Predatory Landlords Prioritize Money Instead of People<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Landlords Hold All the Power<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Discrimination Is Illegal, but Still Very Common<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The History of Racial Discrimination<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n