In 2013, 1 in 8 poor renting families nationwide were unable to pay all of their rent, and similar number thought it was likely they would be evicted soon, according to Harvard sociologist Matthew Desmond in Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. Desmond spent over two years living in the poorest suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the height of the Great Recession. He reported on the experiences of eight families dealing with eviction, poverty and slumlords, and received a 2015 MacArthur “Genius” grant for his work.
Event: Matthew Desmond will be doing a talk and signing at Barnes & Noble (Upper West Side, 82nd & Broadway) tonight (March 8th). He’ll be in conversation with Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, author of Random Family.