A new book, titled Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, just hit the
market. Written by Harvard sociologist
Matthew Desmond, this 432-page treatise describes in exquisite detail the
day-to-day agonies of those persons who find themselves evicted from their
homes by private landlords. With his
primary teaching and research interests devoted to urban sociology, poverty,
race and ethnicity, Dr. Desmond is no stranger to the miseries of the poor.
One of the criticisms leveled at the evicting
landlords was the claim that, in most cases, they collected rents constituting
from 50 to 70 percent of the tenants’ monthly income, a situation which made
late payment and eventual eviction inevitable.
This may well have been the case and, if so, reflects gross stupidity by
the landlords. As a long-time rental
property owner, I’m keenly aware of the eviction process. Here in California, any delinquent tenant who
must be evicted will result in a four-month procedure, during which no rent is
collected, together with fees costing at least a thousand dollars. As a result, my property managers scrutinize each
applicant closely to make certain they can comfortably afford the rent
quoted. Any landlord foolish enough to
routinely accept tenants whose incomes are not equal to three or more times the
scheduled rent, deserves to lose his shirt . . . and will.
There’s no doubt the author is a thorough
researcher as well as a compassionate man.
However, his contention that government–subsidized housing vouchers
should be available to all low-income families and that landlords be required
to accept them, is a formula that could destroy rental housing. His recognition of the blemishes of the dispossessed—unwise ways with money, drug and
alcohol addiction, and casual attitudes toward birth control—to name just a few
of the antisocial characteristics that chronic evictees display, explain why
their presence turns many decently run apartment projects into uninhabitable
slums. Responsible landlords should be
permitted to refuse admittance to persons whose personal habits would degrade
the property.
My guess is Dr. Desmond does not now and
never has owned a single parcel of rental property, nor does he understand the
factors which dictate how well-run rentals must operate. That’s probably not a required course at
Harvard.
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