Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

by Matthew Desmond

What the chief failed to realize, or failed to reveal, was that his department’s own rules presented battered women with a devil’s bargain: keep quiet and face abuse or call the police and face eviction.

“Evicted” help to shine a light on the problem of nuisance ordinances that were resulting in domestic violence survivors being evicted for repeatedly calling 911. Milwaukee revised its ordinance because of my research, and the ACLU and other legal organizations have drawn on it to litigate against a number of cities whose nuisance ordinances harm vulnerable women.