"Evicted by Matthew Desmond describes the plight of poor families who, for want of a few dollars, are forced to move from their homes, apartments, or trailers. An ethnographer, Desmond shares the intimate vicissitudes of his subject / friends as they struggle to make ends meet while negotiating a bewildering system of slumlords, public agencies, law enforcement, and courts, a system that seems almost designed to reinforce a downward spiral of poverty. The consequences of eviction are especially felt by mothers with young children, whose development is jeopardized by substandard housing, low quality neighborhoods, and poor nutrition.
"Social factors are well known to be paramount determinants of health and well-being, and Evicted heartbreakingly illuminates how poverty and lack of housing affect families and communities. America’s health compares poorly to other economically developed counties. Everyone interested in improving public health should read Evicted to better understand poverty, housing, and health.”
The book has been a New York Times best seller,
won a Pulitzer Prize, and was on
Bill Gates’s summer reading list in 2017.