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Evicted

2017/05/09 23:32:23瀏覽1136｜回應0｜推薦2

May Book Club Meeting Evicted by Matthew Desmond shared by Clive

35 year-old Associate Professor of Sociology and Social Studies, Department of Sociology Harvard University, Matthew Desmond tells stories of people at their most vulnerable. The characters that populate this book, many of whom are women and children, are our true American heroes, showing great courage and mythic strength against forces that are much larger than the individual. Their stories are gripping and moving—tragic, too. It’s a wonder and a shame that here, in the most prosperous country in the world, a roof over one’s head can be elusive for so many. Evicted is the story of Milwaukee, and of US housing for the poor in general. Why did it get this bad? Put simply – wages halved. In 1979 in Milwaukee, a machinist earned $11.60 an hour.

By1987, a shopping center clerk received $5.23. By 1980, 28 per cent of black Milwaukeeans were living in poverty. That rose to 42 per cent in 1990. Half of African American working-age men now have no work. A disabled man in America, after paying $550 a month in rent to a private landlord, has $78 to live on if he is relying on benefits: $2.19 a day for soap, toilet paper, a bus ticket – and a phone? Only food stamps and food kitchens prevent starvation. This is the bleak

America we enter into in Evicted.

It’s the rare writer who can capture a social ill with a clear-eyed, nonjudgmental tone and still allow the messiness of real people its due. Matthew Desmond does just that with Evicted as he explores the stories of tenants and landlords in the poorest areas of Milwaukee during 2008 and 2009. It’s almost always a compliment to say that a nonfiction book reads like a novel and thisone does – mostly because Desmond gets very close to the “characters,” relating their words and thoughts and layering on enough vibrant details to make every rented property or trailer come

alive. You can almost forget that these are actual people with actual problems until he delivers a raw jolt of reality: the woman who’s evicted because her boyfriend beats her up; the tenant whose baby daughter dies in a house fire; the tenant who pushes a “friend” out a window for using all her cell phone minutes; the landlord who refuses to fix stopped-up pipes, so tenants allow garbage and sewage to pile up in the property.

Through both personal stories and data, Desmond proves that eviction undermines self, family,and community, bearing down disproportionately hard on women with children. As Evicted pulls back layer after layer, what’s exposed is a social injury that can only damage American society further.

1. Why was Arleen evicted from her apartment on Milwaukee’s near South Side? Were you surprised that her landlord made the decision to evict the family after the apartment door was damaged? Arleen later found an apartment where the rent, not including utilities, was 88% of her welfare check. How might a family like Arleen’s manage to cover rent, utilities, and all other expenses on such a small income?

What kind of sacrifices do you think families in this situation must make in order to make ends meet?

(1)p.308 Every family below a certain income level would be eligible for a housing voucher. They can use the voucher to live anywhere they wanted

(2)p.304 If tenants had lawyers they wouldn’t need to go to court . They could go to work or stay home with children.

2. Tenants are often given two options while being evicted from their residence—their possessions can be loaded into a truck and checked into bonded storage or movers can pile their belongings onto the sidewalk. What challenges and consequences may a tenant or family face when experiencing one of these two scenarios?

(1) p.311 Housing is the foundmental human need to children health,economic opportunities ,stabilizing communities and investment vehicle.

(2)p.102 Most tenants taken to eviction court were sued twice-one for the property and second for the debt.

3.Sherrena Tarver claimed to have found her calling as an inner-city entrepreneur, stating“The ’hood is good. There’s a lot of money there” (page 152). How did Sherrena profit from being a landlord in poor communities? Do you think her profits were justified? What responsibilities do landlords have when renting out their property? What risks do they take? Do you sympathize with Sherrena? Why or why not?

(1) (p.156)” Sherrena had been dabbling in rent-to-own ventures…she would rent one of her more stable tenants a house for six months. during that time, Sherrena would attempt to rapid rescore the tenant's credit, if successful , she would attempt help that tenant secure a loan for the price. Sherena was asking for the property

the federal housing administration often required only a 3.5 percent down payment, which most working tenants could cover with their tax refund”

Sherrena would attempt help the tenant get the loan by renting 6-month property who can pay their down payment by their taxrefund. Every lost found their opportunity.

(2) (p.176)”Tobin didn’t have a mortgage: he had bought the trailer park for 2.1million in 1995 and paid it off nine years later. But he did have to pay property taxes, water bills, regular maintenance costs. Lenny’s and Office Susie’s annual salaries and rent reductions. Advertising fees, and eviction costs. After accounting for these expenses, vacancies, and missing payments. Tobin took home roughly 447.000 each year. Half of what the alderman had reported. Still Tobin belonged to the top 1 percent of income earners. Most of his tenants belonged to the bottom 10%

Tobin belongs to top 1 percent of income earners by obtaining the money from the bottom 12% of the bottom poorest.

4.In Milwaukee, evictions spike in the summer and early fall and dip in November when the moratorium on winter utility disconnections begins. When tenants are unable to pay both the rent and the utilities, how might they make a decision about which expense to pay first? If you were forced to choose between paying rent or heat, which would you choose

(1) (p.1)”I wish the rent was heaven sent”

(2) (p.24)”Between 1979 and 1983, Milwaukee’s manufacturing sector lost more jobs than during the Great Depression-about 56000 of them…in the 1980s, Milwaukee was the epicenter of deindustrialization. In the 1990s, it would become the epicenter of the antiwelfare crusad.”

Where are those workers gone? Gone to mainlandchina

May Book Club Meeting Evicted by Matthew Desmond shared by Emma

Writer:

Matthew Desmond is the Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University

Story:

Scott was a heroin user. He lived with Teddy , an older man he had met when both were staying at the Lodge. Pam and Ned were staying with Scott and Teddy. Tobin had agreed to rent Scott and Teddy’s trailer to Scott and Teddy, nobody else. Tobin gave Scott and Teddy an eviction notice, tacking on Pam and Ned’s rental debt to Scott and Teddy’s bill. Eviction could be contagious that way.(p.52)

Tobin had bought the trailer park for2.1 million in 1995 and paid it off nine years later. But he did have to pay property taxes, water bills, regular maintenance costs, Lenny’s and Office Susie’s annual salaries and rent reductions, advertising fees and eviction costs. After accounting for these expenses, vacancies, and missing payments, Tobin took home roughly 447000 each year. Most of his tenants belonged to the bottom 10 percent.(p.176)

Highlights vs self- reflection:

1.(p.5)”we have failed to fully appreciate how deeply housing is implicated in the creation of poverty.”

Povery of housing is the factor of all.

2.(p.24)”Between 1979 and 1983, Milwaukee’s manufacturing sector lost more jobs than during the Great Depression-about 56000 of them…in the 1980s, Milwaukee was the epicenter of deindustrialization. In the 1990s, it would become the epicenter of the antiwelfare crusad.”

Where are those workers gone? Gone to mainlandchina

3.(p.43)’She didn’t turn on the fan; fans made her dizzy, She didn’t open a window. She just sat on the couch

Life seems worse than the Great Depression.

4.(p.313)”Once city build; another must destroy..This degree of inequality, this withdrawal of opportunity, this cold denial of basic needs, this endorsement of pointless suffering-by no American value is this situation justified. No moral code or ethical principle, no piece of scripture or holy teaching, can be summoned to defend what we have allowed our country to become.”

Once we don’t solve the problem. Then we are one of the problem.

5.(p.156)” Sherrena had been dabbling in rent-to-own ventures…she would rent one of her more stable tenants a house for six months. during that time, Sherrena would attempt to rapid rescore the tenant's credit, if successful , she would attempt help that tenant secure a loan for the price Sherena was asking for the property

the federal housing administration often required only a 3.5 percent down payment, which most working tenants could cover with their tax refund”

Sherrena would attempt help the tenant get the loan by renting 6-month property who can pay their down payment by their taxrefund. Every lost found their opportunity.

5.(p.102)”Most tenants taken to eviction court were sued twice: one for the property and a second time for the debt.”

They are so poor to rent a shelter.

6.(p.176)”Tobin didn’t have a mortgage: he had bought the trailer park for 2.1million in 1995 and paid it off nine years later. But he did have to pay property taxes, water bills, regular maintenance costs. Lenny’s and Office Susie’s annual salaries and rent reductions. Advertising fees, and eviction costs. After accounting for these expenses, vacancies, and missing payments. Tobin took home roughly 447.000 each year. Half of what the alderman had reported. Still Tobin belonged to the top 1 percent of income earners. Most of his tenants belonged to the bottom 10%

Tobin belongs to top 1 percent of income earners by obtaining the money from the bottom 12% of the bottom poorest.

7.(p.177)” It was a small and bare with a treacherous balcony and no shower. But the landlord was only asking $ 420 a month and didn’t bother with a background check.

…..(p.178)Pito arranged for Scott and D.P. to clean out the old dead man’strailer in exchange for them keeping whatever they wanted.

It seems so expensive in Taiwan. But Scott is so satisfied. Even he is willing to take over the dead’s stuff to keep on living.

8.(p.179)”Trailer park residents rarely raised a fuss about a neighbor’s eviction, whether that person was a known drug addict or not. Evicitons wer deserved, understood to be the outcome of individual failure….No one thought the poor more underserving than the poor themselves.”

The poor is the best reason for all the insulting. Like the raped girl who raped her and still needs to say sorry to the society?! No one seems that we are the part of the troublemaker, not the peacemaker.

9.(p.192) “We suggested she obtain a gun and kill him in self defense, but evidently she hasn’t. Therefore, we are evicting her.”

Is it true that they ask the victim to defend herself than to protect her or she need to be evicted?!

10.(p.202)” kamala’s daughters climbed out of bed and knocked over a lamp. Kamala’s father had either fled without grabbing the baby or, more likely, left the girls alone warlier in the evening. Both Kamala and Luke had tried to recue the child, but the fire was all-consuming, Kamala’s other two daughters walked out themselves, before the fire got out of control. Nobody had heard a smoke detector go off

…Sherrena planned to tear the place down and pocket the insurance payout. …The only positive thing I can say is happening out of all of this is that I may get a huge chunk of money.…..(p.203)”…on the house’s front porch, six white lilies tied with a cream ribbon. Spring in the dead of winter

Fire consumed Kamala’s eight months old baby girl… It’s sad, but from the other hand, Sherrena got the insurance payment and can repair the house. All the suffering heart knows how to cherish what they have than what they haven’t faster than all the unsuffering soul

11.(p.214)”…Crystal had an IQ of about 70 and anticipated that she would need long term mental health treatment and supportive assistance if she was to be maintained in the community as an adult.”

Golden Sentence:

1.(p.1)”I wish the rent was heaven sent”

Conclusion:

(1). An estimated 20 million Americans live in mobile homes. People living there are often associated with certain ethnic group. Trailer parks, especially in American culture, are stereotypically viewed as lower income housing whose occupants live at or below the poverty line, have low social status and lead a desultory and deleterious lifestyle. A trailer park is a semi-permanent or permanent area for mobile homes or travel trailers. Advantages include low cost compared to other housing, and quick and easy moving to a new area, for example when taking a job in a distant place while keeping the same home.

(2)40% USA prefer renting than buying the house, usually they need to concern about the fee as follows, or to try lower renting to cover the mortgage. No wonder they prefer to buy stocks. In the story of Evicted, they see Sherrena here who tries to get the bonus from renting to own is a gangster when it comes to her money(p.157).

1, property tax

2, management fees

3, housing insurance

4, housing repair and maintenance

5, housing vacancy and rent and other costs

6, lawyers, public accountants and other expenses

7, personal income tax

8, VAT Value-Added Tax

9, inheritance tax

(3)Tenants show the problem of poor and the racism. All the victim need to be evicted first.

(4)Most of the tenants are women and children. Men left for success, Women stay with the failure.(p.240)”If a poor father failed his family, he could leave the way Larry did, try again at some point down the road, Poor mothers-most of thm , anyway-had to embrace this failure, to live with it.

(5)p.336”The harder feat for any fieldworker is not getting in; it’s leaving..and the more difficult ethical dilemma is not how to respond when asked to help but how to respond when you are giving so much.” Before the social problem, we are always so small…we need a team to keep walking together.

(6)Matthew Desmond is the Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University. Put himself into other’s shoes to give us a touched and precise empathy , sympathy to the poverty problem in USA.Up to 80 percent of average net income goes to pay the rent. Poverty frighten away their men, only women take in charge of the role to take care of the children. Trailer park’s setting is filled with rats, cats, bad facilities. How to climb up from this doomed poverty? Housing voucher or hiring lawyer from the government is nothing better than helping their kids have better education . Policy is the puppet game for the rich and those who know the laws. Every country has his dark side. To denial is the worst way to deal with the problem. Cohesion is the core value to fight against the bad time. Division will make everything from bad to worse. This book brings us the courage to speak for the truth. Thank you, Clive. Your warm voice goes with sharp wits enlighten us with love , hope and faith. And give us a kind thought to love our country. Sometimes we also feel so helpless and hopeless to solve our country’s problem. Like Margie mentioned thank you for your eviction to Taiwan. You are our legend! Peggy’s homemade cake warm our heart. Carol’s snacks from Turkey sweet our mind. It’s a precious time to give us a chance to understand how sick the world is and give us a chance to show our gratitude. Happy Mother’s Day to all of our sweet angel members.

(7) from Clive: I won’t email this out…sorry….I am too incompetent at computers and too lazy, so I hope this will suffice. Thank you Emma for your summation of the meeting today. I appreciate your words and work.

Today, I talked too much (as usual) but the things I read and the things I heard gave me great cause to think and reconsider. Not just because of the topic but the view point of women with so many different experiences and so many different viewpoints. Mingli set the tone of the meeting by suggesting the stories are not the key, but the situations are. I really appreciated Helen and Theresa sharing their experience with making changes one child at a time. I also wanted to say thank you to Peggy, Faye and Betty for sharing experiences and questions. Everyone else put forth ideas, and thoughts that progressed and moved the discussion forward. Evicted lays out the crucial role housing plays in creating and reinforcing white privilege. Black people have the worst housing in the worst neighborhoods – the great fear of the trailer-park people, who are all white, is that they will end up on the black side of town. Eviction hits black women hardest of all, and the bleak benches of housing courts, which deal with disputes between landlords and tenants, are full of black women and their children: “If incarceration had come to define the lives of men from impoverished black neighborhoods, eviction was shaping the lives of women. Poor black men were locked up. Poor black women were locked out.”

“There is an enormous amount of pain and poverty in this rich land,” Desmond writes in his conclusion. That is easy to say, and many books by journalists and academics have done so. By examining one city through the microscopic lens of housing, however, he shows us how the system that produces that pain and poverty was created and is maintained. I can’t remember when an ethnographic study so deepened my understanding of American life and also touched me so deeply. I really did appreciate everyone who participated today. Next month we will have Peggy lead the discussion of “My Name is Lucy Barton.” By Elizabeth Strout.