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
The high cost of housing is crushing poor families and sending them to a state of desperation.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The increasing expense of housing is putting severe pressure on low-income families, leading to dire circumstances.
In this quote, Matthew Desmond highlights the significant financial burden that rising housing costs impose on poor families. It emphasizes that as housing becomes increasingly unaffordable, many families find themselves in desperate situations, struggling to meet basic needs, which can lead to greater societal issues such as homelessness and instability.
Themes
HousingCostPoor FamiliesDesperationEconomics
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech addressing local government, one might quote Desmond to urge for affordable housing initiatives.
More from Matthew Desmond
All quotes βDo we believe housing is a right and that affordable housing is part of what it should mean to be an American? I say yes.
Matthew DesmondRead
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.
Matthew DesmondRead
When I was confronted with just the bare facts of poverty and inequality in America, it always disturbed and confused me.
Matthew DesmondRead
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.
Matthew DesmondRead
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.
Matthew DesmondRead
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