Matthew Desmond treats his examination of evictions in America as a quasi-ethnography, focusing on eight families in Milwaukee, WI as they jump from one housing situation to the next. In telling their stories, he also weaves in facts and statistics about rental costs, eviction rates, and all the unjust reasons for which tentants can and have been evicted from your home. He also interviews some of the landlords, demonstrating how they are complicit in the housing racket, leaving them to make lots of money at the cost of stable homes for families.

Desmond’s writing is approachable and far from dry. He makes you really feel for the families that he profiles. This book will make you angry at the way the rental housing market is run in America’s cities. At the end of the book, he proposes some solutions to the problems, but I wanted a little more on that. Overall, though, this was a thought-provoking read and a great starting place if you’re interesting in the homelessness problem and intersections of race and poverty in this country.