Eviction isn't a consequence of poverty—it's a primary cause that perpetuates it.
Desmond shows how eviction leads to job loss, school disruption, and deeper poverty, not the other way around.
Book summary
Award-Winner / Critically AcclaimedGoodreads Favorite
Evicted
by Matthew Desmond
How housing instability traps families in cycles of poverty
Investigates poverty and profit in America's housing crisis
4.8(9.5k)Published 2016
Topics
PovertyHousingInequalityUrban Studies
Reading companion
How to read Evicted with Readever
Read Evicted in sections, pausing after each family's story to reflect on the systemic patterns. Use Readever to highlight Desmond's key arguments about how eviction drives poverty rather than just reflecting it. Track the eight families' intersecting stories and use the AI to identify common themes about housing scarcity, racial disparities, and policy failures that connect their experiences.
Things to know before reading
- Be prepared for emotionally challenging stories that reveal the human cost of housing instability
- The book follows real families through eviction court, housing searches, and heartbreaking decisions
- Focus on understanding how eviction operates as both cause and consequence of poverty
- Note Desmond's ethnographic methodology—he lived in these communities to gather firsthand data
Brief summary
Evicted in a nutshell
Evicted follows eight families in Milwaukee's poorest neighborhoods as they struggle to keep roofs over their heads. Matthew Desmond's Pulitzer Prize-winning ethnography reveals how eviction isn't just a consequence of poverty—it's a primary cause that perpetuates inequality, destroys communities, and traps families in relentless cycles of displacement. Through intimate portraits of tenants and landlords, the book exposes how America's housing system profits from the poor while systematically denying them stability.
Key ideas overview
Evicted summary of 3 key ideas
*Evicted* demonstrates how eviction operates as a powerful engine of inequality, reshaping lives and communities through systematic displacement.
The private rental market profits from poverty by exploiting housing scarcity.
Landlords in poor neighborhoods can charge premium rents for substandard housing because tenants have few alternatives.
Housing instability destroys communities and perpetuates racial inequality.
Eviction disproportionately affects Black women and children, reinforcing systemic racial disparities.
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Book summaries like Evicted
Discover similar journeys
Understand how housing instability drives poverty—and what we can do about it.
This summary gives you the evidence and language to advocate for housing justice. You'll learn how eviction devastates families, why current policies fail, and what practical solutions could break the cycle of displacement. The insights equip you to recognize housing insecurity as a structural problem, not just individual misfortune.
Deep dive
Key ideas in Evicted
Key idea 1
Eviction isn't a consequence of poverty—it's a primary cause that perpetuates it.
Desmond shows how eviction leads to job loss, school disruption, and deeper poverty, not the other way around.
Traditional thinking treats eviction as an outcome of poverty, but Desmond's research reveals it as a powerful causal force. When families are evicted, they lose their homes, possessions, and community connections. This trauma leads to job loss as employers see eviction records, school disruption for children who must change schools, and mental health crises that deepen poverty. The book documents how eviction creates a downward spiral that's nearly impossible to escape.
Remember
- Eviction records make it harder to find new housing and employment
- Displacement destroys social networks that provide crucial support
- The trauma of eviction creates long-term psychological and financial damage
Key idea 2
The private rental market profits from poverty by exploiting housing scarcity.
Landlords in poor neighborhoods can charge premium rents for substandard housing because tenants have few alternatives.
Desmond reveals how landlords in impoverished neighborhoods operate in a seller's market where demand far exceeds supply. They can charge rents that consume 70-90% of tenants' income for properties with serious code violations. Because tenants have limited options and face discrimination, they accept these conditions. The book shows how this system extracts wealth from the poorest communities while providing minimal housing quality in return.
Remember
- Housing scarcity gives landlords power to charge premium rents for poor conditions
- Tenants spend most of their income on housing, leaving little for other necessities
- The system transfers wealth from poor tenants to property owners
Key idea 3
Housing instability destroys communities and perpetuates racial inequality.
Eviction disproportionately affects Black women and children, reinforcing systemic racial disparities.
The book documents how eviction patterns reflect and reinforce racial inequality. In Milwaukee, Black women are evicted at rates far exceeding other demographic groups. This creates intergenerational poverty as children experience the trauma of displacement and housing instability. Desmond shows how eviction becomes a mechanism for maintaining segregation and limiting upward mobility in communities of color.
Remember
- Black women face eviction at disproportionately high rates
- Children in evicted families experience educational and health consequences
- Housing instability maintains racial segregation and inequality
Context
What is Evicted about?
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City is a groundbreaking work of immersive journalism that follows eight families in Milwaukee's poorest neighborhoods as they navigate the brutal realities of the rental housing market. Sociologist Matthew Desmond spent years living in these communities, documenting how eviction operates as both symptom and cause of deep poverty.
The book alternates between the perspectives of tenants struggling to keep their homes and landlords managing properties in high-poverty areas. Through these intimate portraits, Desmond reveals how America's housing system systematically exploits the poor while denying them stability. The narrative exposes the human cost of policies that treat housing as a commodity rather than a fundamental human right.
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Review
Evicted review
Desmond's writing combines rigorous sociological analysis with novelistic storytelling, creating a work that's both intellectually substantial and emotionally devastating. The narrative unfolds with the tension of a thriller as readers follow families through eviction court hearings, frantic searches for new housing, and heartbreaking decisions about what possessions to abandon.
Critical Reception: Evicted won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, and was named one of the Best Books of 2016 by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Boston Globe. It was praised as "wrenching and revelatory" (The Nation) and "vivid and unsettling" (New York Review of Books), transforming public understanding of poverty and housing policy.
- Winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
- National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction
- Named one of The New York Times' 10 Best Books of 2016
- New York Times Bestseller
- Combines rigorous research with intimate storytelling
- Transformed public discourse on poverty and housing policy
- Called 'wrenching and revelatory' by The Nation
- Exposes the human cost of treating housing as a commodity
Who should read Evicted?
Policy makers and advocates working on housing justice and poverty reduction
Urban planners, sociologists, and students of inequality
Readers seeking to understand the structural causes of poverty
Anyone concerned about racial and economic justice in America
Community organizers and social service providers
About the author
Matthew Desmond is the Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology at Princeton University and the founder of The Eviction Lab, the first nationwide database of evictions in the United States. A MacArthur "Genius" Fellow, he earned his PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and has received numerous awards for his research on poverty and housing.
Desmond's work focuses on urban sociology, poverty, race, and ethnography. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Gates Foundation. Beyond Evicted, he has published extensively in academic journals and popular media, bringing rigorous social science to bear on urgent public policy questions.
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Final summary
Evicted makes an undeniable case that housing instability isn't just a symptom of poverty—it's a primary driver that perpetuates inequality across generations. Desmond's research demonstrates that solving America's housing crisis requires treating housing as a fundamental human right rather than a market commodity. The book offers both a devastating diagnosis and a hopeful vision for creating communities where everyone has access to safe, stable, and affordable housing.
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