Matthew Desmond: Unaffordable America: Housing, Profit, and Policy

Matthew Desmond, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Social Studies, Harvard University.

Owing to rising housing costs, stagnant or falling incomes among the poor, and a shortfall of federal housing assistance, most poor renting families today devote over half their income to housing costs, and eviction has become commonplace in low-income communities.  Poor single mothers with young children, particularly African Americans, are at especially high risk of displacement. 

This talk focuses on the prevalence and consequences of eviction—for parents, children, and neighborhoods.  It concludes with suggested policy remedies and a call to pull housing back to the center of the poverty debate. 

View paper (Summary of key research findings)