(Book Review) Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

Abstract

Evicted is a detailed account of how, in one of the richest
countries in the world, poor families, many of them racial and ethnic
minorities, are regularly forced out of their homes, are expendable and
simply forgotten in the booming, profit-making U.S. housing market.
Matthew Desmond, an American sociologist, eloquently presented vivid
narratives of 8 families living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin between May
2008 and December 2009 where eviction is not only common for poor
families, but it has become a business in itself where people make
profit from other’s misfortunes. This modern ethnography not only
depicts the painful narratives of those evicted, but also discusses
the points of view of the profit-making landlords and the companies
that actually does the packing and moving of unfortunate families.
Evicted presents how poor families—Black, White, Hispanic—struggle
every month to avoid being homeless.