Anthropological overview of the world of super poor renters in Milwaukee. As the title indicates, they get evicted a lot. The author tries to be understanding of all of his subjects, but the landlords can't help but come off as villains. At the same time, Evicted does a good job of showing that the slumlords mostly behave the way they do because the rental market is legally and economically set up to reward their worst behavior. To the landlords, the police, & the wider community the renters are always the problem, & kicking out tenants is seen as an appropriate way of improving a poor neighborhood. One thought I had was why do the landlords get to file as many evictions as they want? The housing court system is overburdened, the police have better things to do (even if they seem perfectly happy to serve the landlords carrying out evictions), why don't they get cut off if they serve too many evictions in a period of time? Tenants get kicked out for calling the cops too many times, even when they have legitimate reasons. Seeing the ways that the poorest rental market works under "normal" circumstances also makes it easier to imagine how exactly gentrification can quickly displace & replace the residents of a poor neighborhood.
Finally, I'd been able to read this book earlier in my life. It would have given me great insight into the ways my landlord, neighbors, and neighborhood behave.