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
You have to understand the role the landlords are playing in shaping neighborhoods, how they potentially expand or reduce inequality, how their profits are a direct result of some tenant's poverty.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Landlords influence neighborhood dynamics and social inequality, connecting their profits to tenant struggles.
In this quote, Matthew Desmond emphasizes the significant impact landlords have on the social fabric of neighborhoods. He argues that their financial successes often come at the expense of tenants, many of whom may be struggling with poverty, highlighting a critical analysis of economic inequality and the responsibilities that come with property ownership.
Themes
LandlordsNeighborhoodsInequalityPovertyProfits
In practice
Example use cases
During a community meeting, you might cite this quote when discussing housing policies.
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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