“they tried to survive in color, to season the suffering with pleasure.” — Matthew Desmond Suffering Copy Share Image
“One's sovereignty over the land is expressed most powerfully in the act of banishment. Perhaps the first eviction recorded in human history… — Matthew Desmond Adam and eve Copy Share Image
Eviction reveals people's vulnerability and desperation as well as their ingenuity and guts. — Matthew Desmond Desperation Copy Share Image
Housing is absolutely essential to human flourishing. Without stable shelter, it all falls apart. — Matthew Desmond Copy Share Image
Home is the center of life. It's the wellspring of personhood. It's where we say we're ourselves. — Matthew Desmond Copy Share Image
“Instability is not inherent to poverty. Poor families move so much because they are forced to. Along” — Matthew Desmond Family Copy Share Image
If eviction has these massive consequences that we all pay for, a very smart use of public funds would be to invest… — Matthew Desmond Consequences Copy Share Image
“Scott then walked slowly from room to room, noticing what had been snatched and what was unwanted even by the desperate. No… — Matthew Desmond Writer Copy Share Image
I think there are ways that graduate students can fact-check their work. I think there are ways that we can do this… — Matthew Desmond Graduate student Copy Share Image
“Most poor people in America were like Arleen: they did not live in public housing or apartments subsidized by vouchers. Three in… — Matthew Desmond Housing Copy Share Image
Between 2007 and 2010, the average white family experienced an 11% reduction in wealth, but the average black family lost 31% of… — Matthew Desmond Copy Share Image
“If we are going to spend the bulk of our public dollars on the affluent — at least when it comes to… — Matthew Desmond Copy Share Image
I saw people get fired after their eviction. But when I found that if you get evicted, your chances of losing your… — Matthew Desmond Evicted Copy Share Image
I think I've read all of W.E.B. Du Bois, which is a lot. He started off with comprehensive field work in Philadelphia,… — Matthew Desmond Books Copy Share Image
I want my work to influence public conversation, to turn heads, and to bear witness to this problem that's raging in our… — Matthew Desmond Copy Share Image
“Not everyone living in a distressed neighborhood is associated with gang members, parole officers, employers, social workers, or pastors. But nearly all… — Matthew Desmond Landlord Copy Share Image
I teach at Harvard, and focusing on understanding this problem on a national level is a big priority of mine right now… — Matthew Desmond Insecurity Copy Share Image
“We have the money. We've just made choices about how to spend it. Over the years, lawmakers on both sides of the… — Matthew Desmond Homeland security Copy Share Image
“The pursuit of happiness undeniably includes the pursuit of material well-being: minimally, being able to secure basic necessities. It can be overwhelming… — Matthew Desmond Happiness Copy Share Image
“A universal voucher program is but one potential policy recommendation. Let others come. Establishing the basic right to housing in America could… — Matthew Desmond Housing Copy Share Image
“A problem as big as the affordable-housing crisis calls for a big solution. It should be at the top of America's domestic-policy… — Matthew Desmond Affordable housing Copy Share Image
“Hispanic and African American neighborhoods had been targeted by the subprime lending industry: renters were lured into buying bad mortgages, and homeowners… — Matthew Desmond African american Copy Share Image
“Legal aid to the poor has been steadily diminishing since the Reagan years and was decimated during the Great Recession. The result… — Matthew Desmond Fair trial Copy Share Image
“When there wasn’t a speaker, he often organized round robins. One such evening, a woman from Lead and Asbestos Information Center, Inc.,… — Matthew Desmond Copy Share Image
“For the first time in the history of America, New Deal policies made homeownership a real possibility for white families, but black… — Matthew Desmond Federal government Copy Share Image
I see myself writing in the tradition of urban ethnography and in the tradition of the sociology of poverty. — Matthew Desmond Culture Copy Share Image
“People who were repulsed by their home, who felt they had no control over it, and yet had to give most of… — Matthew Desmond Copy Share Image
“When people have a place to live, they become better parents, workers, and citizens. If” — Matthew Desmond Live better Copy Share Image
There is a reason so many Americans choose to develop their net worth through homeownership: It is a proven wealth builder and… — Matthew Desmond Copy Share Image
If you look at the American Household Survey, the last time we did that in 2013, renters in over 2.8 million homes… — Matthew Desmond Copy Share Image
Hundreds of data-mining companies sell landlords tenant-screening reports that list past evictions and court filings. — Matthew Desmond Court Copy Share Image
Just as incarceration has come to define the lives of low-income black men, eviction is defining the lives of low-income black women. — Matthew Desmond Copy Share Image
When I was confronted with just the bare facts of poverty and inequality in America, it always disturbed and confused me. — Matthew Desmond America Copy Share Image
The poor don't want some small life. They don't want to game the system. They want to contribute, and they want to… — Matthew Desmond Copy Share Image
We have failed to fully appreciate how deeply housing is implicated in the creation of poverty. — Matthew Desmond Copy Share Image
Almost a decade removed from the foreclosure crisis that began in 2008, the nation is facing one of the worst affordable-housing shortages… — Matthew Desmond Crisis Copy Share Image
Do we believe housing is a right and that affordable housing is part of what it should mean to be an American?… — Matthew Desmond Affordable housing Copy Share Image
This country has so much wealth and so much poverty, and that seemed wrong to me. 'Evicted' was my Ph.D. dissertation. — Matthew Desmond Country Copy Share Image
A lot flows from the question: Is having decent, stable housing part of what it means to live in this country? And… — Matthew Desmond Copy Share Image
