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Why is the American housing system still failing so many citizens in the 21st century? Both government-operated and privately owned housing markets are composed completely of systems designed by people with privilege and power. These systems keep operations easy to handle for those who control them, and they benefit those in positions of power fiscally. However, the majority of people in these systems are at the bottom of them. They have no control over how the systems that decide when and where they get to live work, or what they get out of them. Many of these people at the bottom stay in cycles of poverty, homelessness, drug abuse, emotional abuse, and physical abuse their entire lives. Those who benefit from these systems explain the exploitation of those at the bottom with phrases along the lines of “That’s just how capitalism works” or “If they want to stop suffering they should just work harder.” What these short and uninformed expressions fail to address is that the systems in our society didn’t create themselves. People in power formed these broken systems that fail so many of our citizens, and these systems need to be greatly reformed if we want to one day live in a country with freedom and justice for all.
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond
Evicted, Matthew Desmond walks us through the lives of several low-income families struggling with constant evictions in the inner city of Milwaukee, as well as the lives of their landlords. The renters differ greatly in personality, family life, and job status, but they share one very important thing in common: The renting system is not set up to benefit or protect them. They are single mothers, people in severe poverty, drug addicts, differently abled people, people of color, and victims of abuse. Our American housing system has never served their needs or had sympathy for their situations. Patrice is a young woman just beginning her life as a renter when she is called to eviction court for the first time. On the day of her hearing, she had a shift at the fast-food restaurant where she worked, and couldn’t find anyone to cover for her. Not only would she risk losing her job if she missed a day of work, but she would have to go to eviction court alone and defend herself against someone who had been to eviction court hundreds of times. So Patrice went to work that day and lost her apartment. The housing system failed Patrice by giving her two unfavorable options. In order to protect people like Patrice from unjust evictions, we need to redesign eviction courts so that they give renters a legitimate chance of keeping their homes. The best way to provide renters this opportunity is to give them a lawyer in court. Most renters in eviction court don’t know their rights, so they’re taken advantage of by the system, and they end up losing their homes. By assigning people in a vulnerable situation a lawyer to defend them, you create more-equal court cases where renters have a fair shot at keeping their homes.
Desmond spends a lot of time discussing the struggles a single mom, Arleen, and her two sons experience in the face of constant evictions. Arleen has a hard time holding down a job because of her severe depression and unstable housing situation, so she and her kids rely on Social Security checks to support them. They move constantly, which means Arleen’s sons, Jori and Jafaris, change schools several times a year and miss the majority of their classes. Because the boys are never able to stay in one place for an extended period of time, they are unable to build communities within their schools. This leads to a disconnect between them and their peers, as well as the inability to maintain meaningful relationships. The boys also struggle with their grades and learning habits because they miss school incessantly, largely on account of evictions. In cases of financially stable families, parents are able to intervene when their kids are having problems academically and get them back on track. Arleen, similarly to many other low-income single parents, does not have that luxury. She has to worry about putting food on the table and keeping the gas on, which means her sons don’t get the emotional and academic support they need. Out of necessity, Arleen prioritizes her sons’ safety over their ability to learn and process information. The issue of low-income students performing at lower academic levels than their peers and experiencing more emotional distress than them stems from the inability of parents to find enough stability to adequately support their kids. One way to give these kids the stability their lives lack is by implementing a universal housing voucher program. Desmond highlights how this voucher program would benefit all low-income families, by having them dedicate only 30 percent of their income to housing. This voucher equalizes the playing field for parents who are used to spending the majority of their income on housing. Children in our society would no longer be plagued by fears of losing their homes, and parents would be able to dedicate more time to their children’s education. This would lead to long-term emotional and academic success in children, and fundamentally change our system so that young people are able to remove themselves from cycles of poverty.
The cycles of continual poverty in Black inner-city neighborhoods perpetuate themselves because of century-old housing systems that are still prevalent today. Desmond cites the Great Migration as being the root of systemic housing segregation and discrimination, which occurred when Black Southerners moved to urban settings in hopes of achieving better lives. These migrants were immediately forced into segregated slums upon their arrival, and weren’t given the chance to leave those neighborhoods and potentially own their own homes. When FDR’s New Deal policies were first introduced, it seemed as though owning a home would be accessible for all American families. However, the policies made homeownership possible for white families exclusively. Through systemic racist housing policies and court rulings, Black citizens were forced to stay in the rental system in poverty-ridden neighborhoods. The permanent prevalence of high demand for apartments in slums forces poor individuals to pay exorbitant prices for neglected housing. As a result of this system, poor Black families rent apartments they can’t afford, and experience constant evictions. Young children in similar situations to Jori and Jafaris spend their childhoods in perpetual uncertainty, and never find a place they can call home. The two brothers have had to deal with belligerent roommates, watching all of their belongings thrown onto the streets by strangers, and not having a safe place to sleep. Because of the racist, shattered housing system in America, young children like Jori and Jafaris spend their childhoods wondering whether or not they will ever have somewhere to call home.
Desmond sums up the heartbreak that is life in poverty when he describes how Jori and Jafaris’s mother treats her boys to keep them safe from constant sorrow: “She was teaching her sons to love small, to reject what they could not have.” Those who are affected by poverty and unstable housing cannot enjoy the full human experience. They must keep their hopes and dreams small so as not to be disappointed by a system that will almost certainly fail them. In order for Americans currently in poverty to live fuller and safer lives, we must fundamentally revolutionize the system that continues to force them into a state of suffering.
