If you have someone who is paying 88 percent of her income on rent, and we have laws that allow a landlord to evict a tenant who falls behind under those circumstances, eviction becomes an inevitability.
Matthew DesmondRead
We have failed to fully appreciate how deeply housing is implicated in the creation of poverty.
Interpretation
Housing plays a crucial role in the development and persistence of poverty.
In this quote, Matthew Desmond highlights the significant link between inadequate housing and poverty. He argues that failing to recognize this relationship leads to a lack of effective solutions to combat poverty, as the stability and quality of oneβs living conditions deeply influence opportunities and quality of life.
In practice
In a discussion on social justice, this quote can be used to emphasize the importance of adequate housing in combating poverty.
If you have someone who is paying 88 percent of her income on rent, and we have laws that allow a landlord to evict a tenant who falls behind under those circumstances, eviction becomes an inevitability.
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.
The texture and hardship of poverty and eviction is something that I think left the deepest impression on me, and I hope that I try to convey a little bit of that to the reader.
When I was confronted with just the bare facts of poverty and inequality in America, it always disturbed and confused me.
Arguably, the families most at need of housing assistance are systematically denied it because they're stamped with an eviction record. Moms and kids are bearing the brunt of those consequences.
Moms that get evicted are depressed and have higher rates of depressive symptoms two years later. That has to affect their interactions with their kids and their sense of happiness. You add all that together, and it's just really obvious to me that eviction is a cause, not just a condition, of poverty.
Most Americans have never seen the ignorance, degradation, hunger, sickness, and futility in which many other Americans live...They won't become involved in economic or political change until something brings the seriousness of the situation home to them.
Discrimination has a lot of layers that make it tough for minorities to get a leg up.
Beef is not what Jay said to Nas;_x000D_ _x000D_ Beef is when the working folks can't find jobs.
Child labor perpetuates poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, population growth and other social problems.
Today it is fashionable to talk about the poor. Unfortunately, it is not fashionable to talk with them.
For every R. Kelly or Bill Cosby or Harvey Weinstein, there's, you know, the owner of the grocery store, the coach, the teacher, the neighbor, who are doing the same things. But we don't pay attention until it's a big name. And we don't pay attention 'til it's a big celebrity.
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