Thanks to the book Evicted, written by Matthew Desmond, we can now understand the struggle people experience when they become evicted and what consequences result from eviction. Some of us have been fortunate enough to have never experienced eviction before, but in this book, Desmond with great detail takes us inside the character’s life whom become evicted. In the beginning of the book, a small quote instantly catches the readers’ attention which reads: “I wish the rent was heaven sent.” And within that moment, readers whether they have been evicted before or not, can relate because it’s true; I’m sure we all wish rent was heaven sent because rent takes up a big part of our paycheck. In the prologue, Desmond explains how Arleen, one of the …show more content…
Most of the families mentioned in the book have no job and live off of welfare and food stamps. The little income they receive goes mostly to rent. Because rent is very high, these families struggle paying their necessities like electricity and gas. So it all comes down to poverty… if we don’t have the money to pay rent we get evicted. If we don’t have money to buy food, we starve. If we don’t have the money for medicine or health insurance, we can die. In this country we need money to remain alive. Living in poverty can make people do the unthinkable. For example, Vanetta, who was a mother fell behind on rent and received an eviction notice. She also fell behind electricity bills and in fear of getting her kids taken away by Child Protective Services, she chose to participate in an armed robbery. The rumors of the robbery spread and she got fired from her job and evicted from her home. She was sentenced 15 months in prison and 66 months on probation (2016:267). Vanetta’s roommate, Crystal, only had one source of income and that was food stamps. Crystal didn’t have a home or job, so she began to prostitute herself in order to make enough money to survive (2016:268). These two examples given by Desmond, explain what poverty can lead us to do. People who live in poverty are so desperate to make a living, that they are willing to do whatever it takes to make money. They tend to get so caught up in their actions and lose themselves in doing unrighteous things like robberies and prostitution. Tenants fear 2 things: not having enough money for rent and getting an eviction notice from their