230 Quotes by Matthew Desmond

The poor don't want some small life. They don't want to game the system. They want to contribute, and they want to thrive. But poverty reduces people born for better things.

Eviction affects old folks and young folks, sick people and able-bodied people, white communities and African-American communities.

Libraries are not just places where people go read a book, but places where an immigrant goes to take English lessons and where folks out of a job search for community.

When I was confronted with just the bare facts of poverty and inequality in America, it always disturbed and confused me.

I had come to college believing in a story that if you worked hard, the American dream was reachable.

I think that we value fairness in this country. We value equal opportunity. Without a stable home, those ideals really fall apart.

You meet folks who are funny and really smart and persistent and loving that are confronting this thing we call poverty, which is just a shorthand for this way of life that holds you underwater. And you just wonder what our country would be if we allowed these people to flourish and reach their full potential.

Without the ability to plant roots and invest in your community or your school - because you're paying 60, 70, 80 percent of your income to rent - and eviction becomes something of an inevitability to you, it denies you certain freedoms.

The face of the eviction epidemic is moms and kids, especially poor moms from predominantly Latino and African American neighborhoods.