Ratings73
Average rating4.6
Fascinating and infuriating. Reads in a way like a novel - the book follows several families and individuals struggling with housing insecurity and everything that goes along with it. There are single people and families, some with other issues like addiction or criminal history, but all their stories are compelling and I was rooting for all of them to succeed and find a stable place to live. (Except for the one super-racist white guy, but he's a fairly minor character.) The book also looks at the structural faults of the housing system - my only real issue is that I think more time could have been spent on the effects of segregation and redlining, because even the poorest white families profiled in this book have an easier time and end up in better neighborhoods. There are also two landlords who are characters, which is interesting - almost no one is a full-on hero or villain here. I learned a ton by reading this, and I'm someone who works with low-income people on a daily basis in my job. Highly recommended.