freckled white skin. Years ago, she had been gorgeous and liked to dress in a way that made boys lean out of their car windows. Larraine still cared about her appearance and would leave her eyeglasses at home because she thought they made her look “like a dead fish.” When she wanted to look nice, she put on jewelry she had acquired as a young woman, using safety pins to expand the necklace chains so they fit.
Smelling of sweat and vinegar, her brown hair in disarray, Larraine stepped into the office, wringing the yellow paper like a dishrag. After a brisk exchange, Tobin led Larraine outside and called after Susie.
“Susie? Susie!” Tobin yelled.
“What, Tobin?”
“Take her to the bank, will ya? She’s gonna get some money for the rent.”
“Come on,” Susie said, stepping briskly to her car.
When Susie returned with Larraine, Tobin was in the office, shuffling through papers. “How much?” he asked Susie.
“I have four hundred,” Larraine answered.
“I’m not calling off the eviction,” Tobin said, still looking at Susie. Larraine owed another $150 for that month.
Larraine just stood there.
Tobin turned to Larraine. “When can you get me the other one fifty?”
“Tonight, okay—”
Tobin cut her off: “Okay. You give it to Susie or Lenny.”
Larraine didn’t have it. She had used $150 of her rent money to pay a defaulted utility bill with the hope of having her gas turned back on. She wanted to take a hot shower, scrub away the smell. She wanted to feel clean, maybe even something closer to pretty, like she used to feel when she danced on tables for men, back when her daughters were babies. She wanted the water to soothe the pain of her fibromyalgia, which she likened to “a million knives” going up her back. She had prescriptions for Lyrica and Celebrex but didn’t always have enough for the copay. Hot water would help. But $150 wasn’t enough. We Energies accepted her money but didn’t turn on her gas. Larraine felt stupid for paying.
Susie made out a receipt on a piece of scrap paper and stapled it to Larraine’s eviction notice. “You should go ask your sister for the rest,” she suggested, picking up the fax machine’s phone and dialing a number she knew by heart. “Yes. Hello? I need to stop an eviction at College Mobile Home Park,” Susie said to the Sheriff’s Office. “For Larraine Jenkins in W46. She took care of her rent.” Office Susie had canceled the sheriff deputies, but Tobin could reactivate them if Larraine didn’t come up with the rest of what she owed.
Larraine sulked back to her trailer. It was so hot inside that she thought lukewarm water might run in the shower. She didn’t turn on the fan; fans made her dizzy. She didn’t open a window. She just sat on the couch. She called a few local agencies. After several unsuccessful tries, she said blankly to the floor, “I can’t think of anything else.” Larraine lay down on the couch, tried to ignore the heat, and slept.
4.
A BEAUTIFUL COLLECTION
The day the Common Council was to decide the fate of the trailer park, Tobin Charney, dressed in a polo shirt, tan slacks, and brown loafers, sat in the middle of a front-row bench next to his wife and lawyer. Large pink marble columns stretched up toward a beamed ceiling with an intricate maroon-and-yellow pattern. A large oak desk rested in the front of the room, facing fifteen smaller oak desks assigned to each alderperson and spaced several feet apart. The night before, the lawyer had submitted an addendum to the council. It came in too late for most alders to read, so the lawyer stood and cleared his throat. The addendum, he informed the room, included ten steps Tobin would take in the immediate and near future. He would enroll in a daylong landlord training class offered by the city, hire a twenty-four-hour security service and an independent management company, evict nuisance tenants, and address the property-code violations. He would not retaliate against tenants who spoke out against him. And he would sell the trailer park within a year.
“The people in this park are vulnerable: elderly, disabled, children,” the lawyer concluded, noting that Tobin had “worked diligently” with Alderman Witkowski to “draw up the terms of the agreement.”
The Common Council was not happy with this midnight deal, and they argued with one another as sunlight beamed through the chamber’s stained-glass windows. One alderman called it a “gentleman’s agreement.” Another asked if all citizens, when called
Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 1 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 2 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 3 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 4 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 5 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 6 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 7 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 8 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 9 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 10 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 11 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 12 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 13 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 14 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 15 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 16 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 17 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 18 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 19 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 20 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 21 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 22 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 23 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 24 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 25 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 26 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 27 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 28 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 29 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 30 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 31 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 32 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 33 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 34 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 35 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 36 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 37 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 38 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 39 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 40 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 41 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 42 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 43 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 44 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 45 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 46 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 47 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 48 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 49 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 50 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 51 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 52 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 53 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 54 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 55 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 56 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 57 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 58 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 59 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 60 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 61 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 62 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 63 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 64 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 65 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 66 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 67 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 68 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 69 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 70 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 71 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 72 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 73 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 74 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 75 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 76 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 77 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 78 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 79 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 80 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 81 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 82 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 83 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 84 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 85 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 86 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 87 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 88 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 89 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 90 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 91 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 92 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 93 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 94 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 95 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 96 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 97 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 98 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 99 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 100 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 101 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 102 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 103 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 104 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 105 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 106 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 107 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 108 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 109 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 110 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 111 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 112 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 113 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 114 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 115 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 116 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 117 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 118 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 119 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 120 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 121 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 122 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 123 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 124 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 125 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 126 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 127 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 128 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 129 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 130 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 131 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 132 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 133 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 134 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 135 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 136 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 137 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 138 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 139 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 140 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 141 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 142 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 143 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 144 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 145 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 146 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 147 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 148 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 149 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 150 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 151 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 152 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 153 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 154 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 155 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 156 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 157 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 158 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 159 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 160 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 161 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 162 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 163 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 164 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 165 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 166 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 167 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 168 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 169 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 170 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 171 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 172 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 173 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 174 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 175 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 176 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 177 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 178 Evicted_ Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond - Page 179