Milwaukee, like most
large cities, has a surfeit of substandard housing rented to
struggling families, and people with histories of drug addiction, and
criminal behavior. These families and individuals can spend as much
as 70 percent of their income just to keep a decaying roof over their
heads. You also have the landlords. Their lot isn’t easy either.
Properties have mortgages, taxes, and repairs. When tenants default,
the landlord must cover the expenses and often evict the tenant.
The stories in this
book are heart wrenching. Young mothers with small children who can’t
find enough money to feed the children properly and pay the rent.
These people are trapped in low paying jobs, or confined to public
assistance. As the author points out, it’s not always easy to get
and keep public assistance. There are also drug addicts and
ex-convicts struggling to get clean and keep a place to live.
This is a very
powerful book. I found myself rooting for the families trying to pay
the rent, feed the children, and stay out of trouble. If you wonder
what life is like in the inner city, this book may not be an eye
opener, but it will make you think.
I highly recommend
this book because of the insight into people trying to make a living
and the problems of both landlords and tenants. Evicting people is
hard, but the author depicts a culture in which it is inevitable that
evictions will occur and where landlords will also suffer.
The author has a
solution. I don’t know that it’s workable. I do know that what he
portrays is a very complex societal problem. It’s a situation we
should all be aware of because in the end it affects all of us.
I received this book
from Blogging for Books for this review.
No comments:
Post a Comment