Summary Of Evicted By Matthew Desmond

The book “Evicted” by Matthew Desmond is generally a portrait of the levels of poverty in America and it basically draws on the highest levels of real-life events of poverty that Desmond either witnessed or even heard about when he was carrying out field research in preparation to write the book. The events in the book took place in a period between 2008 and 2009. The book presents eight families that are struggling with the hardships of life and they spend more than 70 percent of the income on rent which leaves very little amounts for their utilities and daily expenses. Many are unable to cope with the amounts of rent the landlord's charge and they end up being evited. The main condition that seems to be holding these poor people …show more content…
It was when the landlord came to know about the issue and the door that was broken in the process that she evicted Arleen and her sons. They had to spend the night out in the cold looking for a new place, but Arleen prefers that other than having the landlord call the sheriff on her since they would arrive with guns and many boot-footed movers and also an order from the judge stating that the house no longer belonged to her. With would make Arleen be provided with two options; the truck or the curb. The first option, the truck, would mean that all the things that belonged to Arleen would be packed into a truck and she would only have it back once she paid an amount of $350 which she did not have. The second option, the curb, would mean that all her things would be taken away into a sidewalk and she would be left with nothing. However, Arleen proved her integrity which greatly helps her in coping with the changes she is undergoing. She opts to stay the night out as she looks for a new place to take her sons rather than having to face more difficulties if she refused to move out of the house (Desmond …show more content…
There she could tell her sons, “We’re staying at the Lodge tonight (Desmond 10)” Arleen stayed in the ‘lodge’ until she found a new place in Nineteenth and Hampton, an inner city in the North Side of Milwaukee. Despite the fact that the house is old and there was no water inside the house, Arleen seems to love it because it was spacious, and it was also set apart from other houses. She stated, “it was quiet…And five-twenty-five for a whole house, two bedrooms upstairs and two bedrooms downstairs. It was my favorite place” (Desmond 25). Despite having faces eviction, Arleen seems to show high levels of energy and enthusiasm which many people living with such levels of poverty would not have. Her energy to move on in life and take care of her children is one of her greatest strengths which help her overcome all she is going through. Once again, Arleen was faced with another challenge when the city declared that the place was “unfit for human habitation” and now Arleen had to move again, and she took the boys to an apartment in Atkinson Avenue. However, after a short period after they moved in, she came to realize that the apartment was full of drug dealers and since she feared for her boys, she only stayed in the place for four months and moved to an apartment in Thirteenth Street and Keefe. The apartment was not in its best condition, but