((PKG)) EVICTION ((Russian Service))
((Banner: Evicted From Home))
((Reporter/Camera: Jill Craig))
((Adapted by: Philip Alexiou))
((MAP: Baltimore, Maryland))
((SARAH, BALTIMORE RESIDENT))
So like 11 years ago, I’ve been evicted, I was evicted. After being evicted, we, my family and I were separated because I had to go with my brother who lived in an efficiency apartment. My girls had to go with their godmother. You know, so, you know, we were separated for a whole year until I was able to find a place.
((BANNER: The Eviction Exhibit in Washington, D.C. was inspired by author Matthew Desmond))
((LOCATOR: National Building Museum, Washington, D.C.))
((MATTHEW DESMOND, AUTHOR OF EVICTED: POVERTY AND PROFIT IN THE AMERICAN CITY))
For a long time we haven’t known how big of a problem eviction was. We didn’t know what it was doing to families. The housing crisis isn’t at the top of our domestic agenda and it absolutely should be. So, this is the way to tell the story. This is the way to tell the story by these facts and these statistics, but importantly it’s a way to tell the story by elevating the voice of the families that have been evicted and have faced this crisis.
((LOCATOR: Baltimore, Maryland))
((SARAH, BALTIMORE RESIDENT))
It was very humiliating. It was hurting. It was embarrassing, you know. I felt like a failure, not only to myself, I felt a failure to my kids.
((MATTHEW DESMOND, AUTHOR OF EVICTED: POVERTY AND PROFIT IN THE AMERICAN CITY))
One of the things that this Eviction Exhibit does is help us throw this problem into the light. Take a problem that’s been invisible and put it on the map. I think that’s the first step. So, today most poor renting families spend most of their income on housing costs. One in four of poor renting families spend 70 percent of their income just on rent and utilities. So, if someone would ask me, 'hey, is this, you know, just irresponsibility?' I would respond by saying, 'it's more inevitability.’ You know, when you’re paying 70, 80 percent of your income on housing costs, a very small misstep can lead you to get evicted.
((SARAH, BALTIMORE RESIDENT))
When a person gets evicted, it’s something that always lives with you. It never ends, you know, because now legally, when you rent another place, that eviction goes with you. So your previous landlord already knows that you’ve been evicted before. So now, he’s going to use it to his advantage to make sure that he could, I say, ‘milk you.’
((MATTHEW DESMOND, AUTHOR OF EVICTED: POVERTY AND PROFIT IN THE AMERICAN CITY))
If you look at the numbers that we can see in places like London and Paris, our evictions are incredibly higher than those numbers. We have a speedy, efficient eviction crisis, and we have an eviction crisis that affects about 6,300 Americans every single day, who receive an eviction judgment.
((SARAH, BALTIMORE RESIDENT))
I think the laws needs to look at people as human. Look at as if you could look at an animal and don’t want to see an animal on the street, then why would you want to see a human on the street?
