Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

Desmond used ethnography to create vivid narratives of the lives of people facing eviction and weave in data on eviction and affordable housing crises, explanations of processes and systems and their failings. I have a much better understanding of housing voucher programs, landlords' exploitation, and gaps and holes in our welfare systems through which people fall (I also think my reading was very much helped and contextualized by having read The Color of Law beforehand). My two main gripes here are that a) despite his attempt to remove himself from the narrative, Desmond's writing about the people in the book often feels paternalistic, and b) his ending recommendation for universal voucher systems doesn't fully convince me that such a system wouldn't still be ripe for abuse (by landlords) and leave people behind. To his credit he admits other solutions can and will come and perhaps vouchers are a helpful stopgap.