“Our current state of affairs reduces to poverty people born for better things.” — Matthew Desmond Better things Copy Share Image
Exploitation. Now, there's a word that has been scrubbed out of the poverty debate. — Matthew Desmond Debate Copy Share Image
“Poor black men were locked up. Poor black women were locked out.” — Matthew Desmond Black women Copy Share Image
“But equal treatment in an unequal society could still foster inequality.” — Matthew Desmond Equal treatment Copy Share Image
You lose your home, you lose your community, you lose your school, you lose your stuff. — Matthew Desmond Community Copy Share Image
“they tried to survive in color, to season the suffering with pleasure.” — Matthew Desmond Suffering Copy Share Image
All homeowners in America may deduct mortgage interest on their first and second homes. — Matthew Desmond America 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
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
We have failed to fully appreciate how deeply housing is implicated in the creation of poverty. — Matthew Desmond 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
Just strictly from a business standpoint, kids are a liability to landlords, and they actually provoke evictions. — Matthew Desmond 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
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
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
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
In college, when I was kind of confronted with facts and figures about inequality in America, a big impulse I had was… — Matthew Desmond America Copy Share Image
There were evictions that I saw that I know I'll never forget. In one case, the sheriff and the movers came up… — Matthew Desmond Children Copy Share Image
The standard of 'affordable' housing is that which costs roughly 30 percent or less of a family's income. Because of rising housing… — Matthew Desmond Affordable housing Copy Share Image
Most poor families are living completely unassisted in a private rental market, devoting most of their income to housing. When you meet… — Matthew Desmond Eviction Copy Share Image
“Trailer park residents rarely raised a fuss about a neighbor’s eviction, whether that person was a known drug addict or not. Evictions… — Matthew Desmond Copy Share Image
I started a student organization that was basically designed to connect students with homeless folks. We visited them and sometimes brought food,… — Matthew Desmond Food 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
“Poor neighborhoods provided their residents with quite a lot. In the trailer park, residents met people who knew how to pirate cable,… — Matthew Desmond Community Copy Share Image
“When tenements began appearing in New York City in the mid-1800s, rent in the worst slums was 30 percent higher than in… — Matthew Desmond Black ghetto Copy Share Image
“A universal housing voucher program would carve a middle path between the landlord’s desire to make a living and the tenant’s desire,… — Matthew Desmond Copy Share Image
“Most federal housing subsidies benefit families with six-figure incomes.59 If we are going to spend the bulk of our public dollars on… — Matthew Desmond Copy Share Image
“These days, there are sheriff squads whose full-time job is to carry out eviction and foreclosure orders. There are moving companies specializing… — Matthew Desmond Housing Copy Share Image
“Exploitation thrives when it comes to the essentials, like housing and food. Most of the 12 million Americans who take out high-interest… — Matthew Desmond Exploitation Copy Share Image
“Working on behalf of the common good is the engine of democracy, vital to our communities, cities, states—and, ultimately, the nation. It… — Matthew Desmond American people Copy Share Image
“Families who spend more on housing spend less on their children.” — Matthew Desmond Children Copy Share Image
Poverty was a relationship, I thought, involving poor and rich people alike. — Matthew Desmond Money Copy Share Image
You can get out of maintaining property at code if the family is behind on rent. — Matthew Desmond Copy Share Image
A universal voucher program would change the face of poverty in this country. — Matthew Desmond Change Copy Share Image
Children didn't shield families from eviction: They exposed them to it. — Matthew Desmond Children Copy Share Image
Everywhere else, we are someone else, but at home, we remove our masks. — Matthew Desmond Copy Share Image
Losing a home sends families to shelters, abandoned houses, and the street. — Matthew Desmond Copy Share Image
