It took a certain kind of skill to make a living off the city’s poorest trailer park, a certain kind of initiative.

In Chapter 3, Tobin is described as a unique businessman. He is very direct, whether he is speaking with drug addicts or labor workers. He uses his office staff to monitor when people’s mail includes their government checks and will demand his money outright on the days when a check arrives. Many of the residents have difficulty paying the rent and meeting their basic needs. Tobin makes handshake-deals with some people who are behind on rent while evicting others. The office staff also keep him up-to-date on people’s habits and how much trouble they are creating. Even when faced with closing the trailer park, Tobin is able to keep it running while transferring to a new management company and promising to sell the park within a year. Closing the trailer park would have instantly evicted over 200 families as well as cost Tobin a large amount of money.

A single eviction could destabilize multiple city blocks, not only the block from which a family was evicted but also the block to which it begrudgingly relocated.

Chapter 6 discusses family mobility and its impact. When a family is evicted, it affects the neighbors and the community. When a recently evicted family moves into a new neighborhood, it can also create instability, since the family does not want to try to connect with the new neighborhood. They know their stay is likely brief. When families stay in neighborhoods for a long time, they take more interest in their community, getting to know their neighbors and becoming involved with local businesses and schools. Once a family is evicted, they face greater challenges that quickly minimize any concern for the well-being of anyone outside of their family. Many families that are evicted also face further economic hardship, since they are responsible for a security deposit and first month’s rent at the new location while still owing money to their previous landlord. Such families that are evicted often do not think they will be staying at their new location very long.

Poor Black men were locked up. Poor Black women were locked out.

In Chapter 8, Desmond compares the disproportionate number of Black men who are arrested and imprisoned to the disproportionate number of Black women who attend evictions court. Nationwide, there is disparity in the number of Black men who are imprisoned compared to white men, as well as the severity of the sentences that each receive for similar crimes. Women from Black neighborhoods in Milwaukee make up nine percent of the population but account for thirty percent of its evictions. When Desmond visits the evictions court, he notes that most of the people in attendance are Black women, often with children. Desmond also states that there are disparities in how the locations that Black people rent are treated. In Black neighborhoods, eligible buildings are about three times as likely to be labeled “nuisance buildings” compared to comparable buildings in white neighborhoods. Tenants in nuisance buildings are much more likely to be evicted.

Like many inner-city landlords, Sherrena and Quentin tried to limit the number of appliances in their units.

In Chapter 10, Desmond comments on the fact that many landlords who rent units in poor areas try to limit the number of appliances. They know that the more appliances in a unit, the more likely that they will have to repair an appliance. When dealing with the “grinding” poor (people at the lowest socioeconomic level, who are also the most desperate), landlords know that any appliances that are included will seem like a luxury. Throughout the book, various renters are excited when they move into a unit that has a functioning stove. Additionally, while renters are behind on rent, landlords have no incentive to fix any of their appliances and can continue renting units that violate housing codes (as seen with Doreen’s family and the many issues with the plumbing in their unit).

No one thought the poor more undeserving than the poor themselves.

In Chapter 14, Desmond points out an odd way of thinking that is prevalent in poor neighborhoods. Instead of showing solidarity, neighbors often believe that evictions are deserved, regardless of the tenants being evicted or their lifestyles. Desmond describes how decades ago, evictions were less common. Neighbors would congregate outside of a home to stop officials from evicting the tenants. In modern times, with many more evictions, most neighbors avoid getting involved. In Tobin’s College Mobile Home Park, tenants often speak with disdain about neighbors who are being evicted. When Scott is evicted, other residents of the park raid his trailer while he is at work, knowing that he will be gone soon and that a moving company will likely come to remove his property.

Roommates inside the homeless shelter would become roommates outside of it.


In Chapter 20, Desmond describes how people will often seek out roommates while at a homeless shelter. Even after knowing someone for only a week, individuals and families will pool their resources to rent a new place. The desperation draws them together quickly and without many reservations. Most rental properties require the first month’s rent as well as a security deposit. People who have been evicted and are living in a shelter rarely have enough money for even a month’s worth of rent, let alone groceries or other basic needs. Within the shelter, most people are trying to return to a rental property as soon as possible. If two families or individuals share a unit, their combined paychecks or SSI checks usually allow the new roommates to find a property within a month, even if it does not have multiple bedrooms. In the book, this kind of relationship often ends badly, as seen with most of the people that agree to be Crystal’s roommate.

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