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A review by mew_reviews
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.0
Oh, this was depressing and I don’t think I was ready or in the right mindset to read this book. I think I still have a lot of secondary trauma from my work as a PD and this was not the right time for me to read this.
My problem with this book is that Matthew’s ideas for how to solve unaffordable housing and the eviction crisis are so far out of reach.
I was a public defender for misdemeanor cases in a big city. My average case load was 460 cases and I saw all of my active case clients each month. I only took one day off a week and I almost burned out and switched to teaching after not even a year. The idea of giving people government paid attorneys for eviction proceedings when Public Defenders offices across the nation don’t even have enough attorneys to have more than one misdemeanor attorney assigned to a courtroom is honestly a really tough pill for me to swallow.
And, yes, both the criminal and the civil eviction legal systems need serious reform, but if we are going to talk about attorneys… can we please make sure that there are enough funds for the public defenders first. We are already fighting for scraps as is.
Even if there could be government appointed attorneys for evictions, they would likely be in the same position I was. With way too many cases and clients and not enough resources to truly fight for clients without burning out and having awful work life balance.
An easier middle ground here would be to get more social workers in place at Public Defenders offices. OR to have one or two attorneys with a non-profit organization with a room at small claims court which are not appointed, but are there as resources for any person facing eviction who would like to talk to an attorney. I have seen that as an option before and was surprised at how many people facing eviction chose not to speak to a lawyer. Those attorneys do rely on county funding or are earning probono hours though. However, with the current administration in place any hope at achieving any type of meaningful housing or criminal legal system reform is slim to none.
My problem with this book is that Matthew’s ideas for how to solve unaffordable housing and the eviction crisis are so far out of reach.
I was a public defender for misdemeanor cases in a big city. My average case load was 460 cases and I saw all of my active case clients each month. I only took one day off a week and I almost burned out and switched to teaching after not even a year. The idea of giving people government paid attorneys for eviction proceedings when Public Defenders offices across the nation don’t even have enough attorneys to have more than one misdemeanor attorney assigned to a courtroom is honestly a really tough pill for me to swallow.
And, yes, both the criminal and the civil eviction legal systems need serious reform, but if we are going to talk about attorneys… can we please make sure that there are enough funds for the public defenders first. We are already fighting for scraps as is.
Even if there could be government appointed attorneys for evictions, they would likely be in the same position I was. With way too many cases and clients and not enough resources to truly fight for clients without burning out and having awful work life balance.
An easier middle ground here would be to get more social workers in place at Public Defenders offices. OR to have one or two attorneys with a non-profit organization with a room at small claims court which are not appointed, but are there as resources for any person facing eviction who would like to talk to an attorney. I have seen that as an option before and was surprised at how many people facing eviction chose not to speak to a lawyer. Those attorneys do rely on county funding or are earning probono hours though. However, with the current administration in place any hope at achieving any type of meaningful housing or criminal legal system reform is slim to none.