To get out of my fiction habit I decided to take part in Non-fiction November and picked up “Eviction.” It was very illuminating.
These past few years I’ve often wondered how people who work for minimum wage are getting by. And this book clearly told me that they are not. Not at all. I knew some things about the welfare system in this country but I didn’t realize just how unhelpful it was until this book. A three person family shouldn’t have to live off a $50 a month while giving 80% of their aid to a landlord only to be kicked out anyway because they called an ambulance when their son had a seizure. And to think it’s probably gotten 10 times worse due to the housing crisis.
A quarter of the way through I started limiting myself to 2 chapters a day because I could feel the anxiety and stress of his subjects coming through the page.
I felt devastated for them but also grateful everything I have.
Right. Like I’m enraged and terrified for the people featured in the book but I’ve also never been so grateful to have a job, to be able to pay rent with ease, to have family that can pay rent and who I can depend on. Things were rough for my mom when I was growing up but I don’t think I realized how close we were to having this book become our reality. We moved states to stay with my grandparents and I’ve never been more grateful that we were able to do that.