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McCaskey
Filed under: Renting 101
PRINT | E-MAIL More Text: A A A Emerging research from Milwaukee shows that eviction may be to black women what incarceration is to black men. Currently, about 10 percent of black men in America are behind bars. What's happening to the wives, girlfriends, mothers, and sisters back home? They're being evicted from their apartments.
One in 20 households are evicted every year. In predominately black communities, the rate doubles to one in ten families. In poor communities eviction is a common struggle.
"Eviction is probably the most under-studied process affecting the lives of the urban poor," said Matt Desmond told website True/Slant. Desmond is a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who researched the issue by living in the communities that suffered the greatest.
And, it gets worse: "We know nothing about it," he adds...
An eviction has consequences beyond being put out on the street. Just one eviction on your record can make your security deposit at your next rental higher. Your rent may cost more, and, you may be at the mercy of unscruplous landlords who could ignore your renter's rights. For poor people who already struggle to pay rent - sometimes paying as much as 80 or 90 percent of their income on rent in expensive metro areas - the results can be devastating.
Resulting homeless or housing insecurity can carry crippling social ramifications for families and youth. Research has shown that school children who are homeless suffer social, academic, physical, even emotional damage. These factors, in turn, contribute to other social ills and criminal behavior which can land a person in jail.
Just because eviction is bad doesn't mean that no one should be evicted, says Desmond. It means that more attention should be paid to the process that is directly impacting the lives of the
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