 Brought to you by Penguin Evicted poverty and profit in the American city by Matthew Desmond Read for you by Dion Graham for Michelle Who's been down the line? I wish the rent was heaven sent Langston Hughes little lyric of great importance Authors note This is a work of nonfiction Most of the events described in this book took place between May 2008 and December 2009 Except were indicated in the notes all the events that occurred within that time period were witnessed firsthand All quotations were captured by a digital recorder or copied from official documents The names of tenants their children and their relatives as well as landlords and their workers have been changed to protect their privacy prologue cold city Jury and his cousin were cutting up tossing snowballs at passing cars From Jury Street corner on Milwaukee's near South Side Cars driving on 6th Street passed squat duplexes with porch steps ending at a sidewalk edged in dandelions Those heading north approached the Basilica of St. Joseph at whose crowning dome looked a jury like a giant overturned plunger It was January of 2008 and the city was experiencing the snowiest winter on record Every so often a car turned off 6th Street to navigate Arthur Avenue hemmed in by the snow and that's when the boys would take aim Jury packed a tight one and let it fly The car jerked to a stop and a man jumped out The boys ran inside and locked the door to the apartment where Jury lived with his mother Arlene and younger brother Jafaris the lock was cheap and the man broke down the door with a few hard-heeled kicks He left before anything else happened When the landlord found out about the door she decided to evict Arlene and her boys They had been there eight months The day Arlene and her boys had to be out was cold But if she waited any longer the landlord would summon the sheriff who would arrive with a gun a team of bootfooted movers And a folded judge's order saying that her house was no longer hers She would be given two options truck or curb Truck would mean that her things would be loaded into an 18-footer and later checked into bonded storage She could get everything back after paying $350 Arlene didn't have $350 so she would have opted for curb which would mean watching the movers pile everything onto the sidewalk Her mattresses a floor model television her copy of don't be afraid to discipline Her nice glass dining table and the lace tablecloth that fit just so silk plants Bibles the meat cuts in the freezer the shower curtain Jafaris's asthma machine Arlene took her sons Jury was 13 Jafaris was five to a homeless shelter which everyone called the lodge so you could tell your kids Were staying at the lodge tonight Like it was a motel The two-story stucco building could have passed for one except for all the salvation army signs Arlene stayed in the 120 bed shelter until April when she found a house on 19th and Hampton in the predominantly black inner city On Milwaukee's north side not far from her childhood home It had thick trim around the windows and doors and was once Kendall Green But the paint had faded and chipped so much over the years that the bare wood siding was now exposed making the house look camouflaged at one point someone had started repainting the house plain white But had given up mid brushstroke leaving more than half unfinished There was often no water in the house and Jury had to bucket out what was in the toilet But Arlene loved that it was spacious and set apart from other houses It was quiet. She remembered and 525 for a whole house two bedrooms upstairs and two bedrooms downstairs It was my favorite place After a few weeks the city found Arlene's favorite place unfit for human habitation Removed her nailed green boards over the windows and doors and issued a fine to her landlord Arlene moved Jury and Jafaris into a drab apartment complex deeper in the inner city on Atkinson Avenue Which she soon learned was a haven for drug dealers She feared for her boys, especially Jury slack-shouldered with pecan brown skin and a beautiful smile Who would talk to anyone? Arlene Sample complete ready to continue