Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

by Matthew Desmond

The real money was made in rents. Every month Sherrena collected roughly $20,000 in rent. Her monthly mortgage bills rounded out to $8,500. After paying the water bill, Sherrena—who owned three dozen inner-city units, all filled with tenants around or below the poverty line—figured she netted roughly $10,000 a month, more than what Arleen, Lamar, and many of her other tenants took home in a year. As Sherrena liked to put it: “The ’hood is good. There’s a lot of money there.”

Since publishing “Evicted,” I’ve continued to research and report on landlords. I published a study a few years ago that found that, nationwide, landlords operating in poor neighborhoods make double that of landlords in affluent communities. I expand on this theme in my new book, “Poverty, by America,” which explores the dynamics and consequences of exploitation.