230 Quotes by Matthew Desmond

It is very rare in the life of an intellectual to see your support network show up all at once.

If poverty persists in America, it is not for lack of resources. We lack something else.

You do learn how to cope from those who are coping.

There is a deep connection, when we're talking about certain market forces and a legal structure that inhibits low or moderate income families from getting ahead. Eviction is part of a business model at the bottom of the market.

I saw people get fired after their eviction. But when I found that if you get evicted, your chances of losing your job increase by 20 percent, that's when it really hit home for me.

I came to the realization of how essential a role housing plays in the lives of the poor.

If we are going to spend the bulk of our public dollars on the affluent - at least when it comes to housing - we should own up to that decision and stop repeating the canard about this rich country being unable to afford more.

Eviction comes with a record, too, and just as a criminal record can bar you from receiving certain benefits or getting a foothold in the labor market, the record of eviction comes with consequences as well. It can bar you from getting good housing in a good neighborhood.

Do we believe housing is a right and that affordable housing is part of what it should mean to be an American? I say yes.