This country has so much wealth and so much poverty, and that seemed wrong to me. 'Evicted' was my Ph.D. dissertation.
Housing is absolutely essential to human flourishing. Without stable shelter, it all falls apart.
I don't think that you can address poverty unless you address the lack of affordable housing in the cities.
I don't think we can fix poverty without fixing housing, and I don't think we can address housing without understanding landlords.
If incarceration had come to define the lives of men from impoverished black neighborhoods, eviction was shaping the lives of women. Poor black men were locked up. Poor black women were locked out.
Tenants don't have any right to court-appointed attorneys in civil court, so they're either facing their landlord - or his or her attorney - alone, or they just don't show up. That reflects a severe power imbalance.
We can start with housing, the sturdiest of footholds for economic mobility. A national affordable housing program would be an anti-poverty effort, human capital investment, community improvement plan, and public health initiative all rolled into one.
The things you're closest to are often the things you know least about.
If poverty persists in America, it is not for lack of resources. We lack something else.
The home is the center of life - a refuge from the grind of work, pressure of school, menace of the streets, a place to be ourselves.
Do we believe housing is a right and that affordable housing is part of what it should mean to be an American? I say yes.
I think that we value fairness in this country. We value equal opportunity. Without a stable home, those ideals really fall apart.
There is a reason so many Americans choose to develop their net worth through homeownership: It is a proven wealth builder and savings compeller.
We have failed to fully appreciate how deeply housing is implicated in the creation of poverty.
Just as incarceration has come to define the lives of low-income black men, eviction is defining the lives of low-income black women.
Home is where children find safety and security, where we find our identities, where citizenship starts. It usually starts with believing you're part of a community, and that is essential to having a stable home.
Between 2007 and 2010, the average white family experienced an 11% reduction in wealth, but the average black family lost 31% of its wealth. The average Hispanic family lost 44.7%.
Home is the wellspring of personhood, where our identity takes root; where civic life begins. America is supposed to be a place where you can better yourself, your family, and your community.
Eviction comes with a record. Just like a criminal record can hurt you in the jobs market, eviction can hurt you in the housing market. A lot of landlords turn folks away who have an eviction, and a lot of public housing authorities do the same.
I met a landlord who will pay you to move at the end of the week and let you use his van. That's a really nice kind of eviction. I met a landlord who will take your door off. There are 101 ways to move a family out.
