Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

The idea of a home is powerful in Evicted. Every time someone lands a place of their own to move into, genuine jubilation follows. Yet, the way “home” versus just a “house” operates is more complicated, and their respective relationships to the people living in a rented property are more problematic and nuanced than at first glance.

As Desmond says in the Epilogue, home is where people can relax, be themselves, and escape from the world. At the same time, he posits home as the beginning of civic life because it’s the connections made with neighbors that allow the productive formation of cohesive communities. Therefore, he feels a home is a right, not a privilege, because out of it a stable society can emerge.

This is not always the case for the people in Evicted, especially as they often confuse a dwelling with a home. Doreen Hinkston does her best to keep her family together in Sherrena Tarver’s duplex, but the conditions there are so unendingly bad the family suffers a psychological malaise as a result. Arleen Belle tells her son bad things keep happening to them because they don’t have a house. Yet, it’s not that they don’t have places to stay, it’s the fact they never have a chance to nest, to make these places their home.