Congregation leaders meeting in Milwaukee learn about the toll evictions take nationally

Matthew Desmond, an award-winning reporter on the Milwaukee housing crisis, calls evictions one of America's most devastating problems.

And in a keynote presentation Saturday in Milwaukee, Desmond told ministers from across the country what they could do about it.

The presentation was part of the United Church of Christ's General Synod, a biennial governance meeting held this year at the Wisconsin Center.

Desmond centered the talk around his Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City," which documents the struggles faced by eight Milwaukee families in their search for housing.

To get close to the families, he moved into their neighborhoods: a south side mobile home park and the north side inner city. Desmond followed the families everywhere from eviction court to shelters. He watched their kids, attended funerals and even witness a birth.

There was Larraine, one of Desmond's trailer park neighbors who was spending over 70% of her income on a mobile home the city considered an environmental biohazard; Lamar, an inner-city single dad and veteran who had to physically work off a late rent payment despite his leg amputations; and Vanetta, single mother from the inner city who fell behind on rent and committed an armed robbery out fear of losing her children and home. 

To understand both sides of the issue, Desmond also had to get close to the city's landlords. He helped them maintain their properties, hand out eviction notices and collect rent.

By pairing these stories with analysis of eviction records and data collected from surveys across the city, Desmond was able to investigate poverty in Milwaukee on a level that never had been done before.

He told the leaders gathered at the General Synod how government programs designed to help families looking for affordable housing were failing. According to Desmond, the consensus in America is that we should spend 30% of our income on housing. But today the majority of poor renting families spend over half their income on housing costs.

Arleen Bell, an inner-city mother who Desmond profiled, tried to apply for affordable housing the at Housing Authority in Milwaukee. Bell was spending 88% of her income to rent a home in a drug haven but was told the affordable housing list was "frozen." On it were 3,500 families who applied for rent assistance five years earlier.

According to Desmond, this list is not bad when compared with those of American cities that measure their wait times in decades instead of years.

Only one in four American families who qualify for affordable housing assistance from the government receives any help. This service percentage would be unthinkably low for programs meeting other basic human needs.

"Imagine if we turned away three of four families asking for food stamps, being like 'I'm sorry we don't have enough for you, you just have to go hungry,'" said Desmond. "That's exactly how we treat low-income families searching for affordable shelter today."

To expand his research beyond Milwaukee, Desmond has been working for the last two years with the Eviction Lab at Princeton to create the nation's first national database of evictions. The team has collected, analyzed and mapped over 80 million eviction records issued since 2000 and made themavailable online.

While the data is still incomplete, the lab learned that in 2016 2.3 million Americans lived in homes that received eviction notices. Every two years in Milwaukee, one in eight renters is evicted.

The base of the eviction epidemic, according to Desmond, is mothers, especially African American mothers with children. The chance of eviction triples if the renter has children.

Desmond encouraged the leaders to visit his website and use the data.

"Bring it your congregations, your local elected officials," he said. "Your PTA meetings, your Tupperware parties and start a conversation about what this crisis looks like in your own backyard."

Desmond argued that in order to have more stable communities, we need fewer evictions. Evictions can stain a family's record and prevent them from moving not only into good neighborhoods but also public housing. They lead to job loss and mental stress. Ultimately they are a cause of poverty, not just a condition. 

"Shouldn't access to a basic affordable home be a part of what it means to live here?" he asked the crowd.

Using the proceeds of his book, Desmond created an organization to amplify the efforts of the people working around the nation. He told the leaders they could find out who was working in their areas. They could get their congregations involved or even plug in personally with their own time and money.

Desmond emphasized that a big solution is needed to overcome the eviction crisis. He suggested expanding an affordable housing choice voucher program to everyone below the poverty line. The government could also provide universal housing for $22 billion, or the cost of two military planes.

"This blunting of human beauty and potential, and this whole denial of basic human need, this isn't us," said Desmond. "By no American values is this situation justified." 

In response to this national crisis, more than 5,000 UCC churches have been addressing eviction on the local level.  According to the Rev. John Dorhauer, general minister and president of the UCC, many congregations have open spaces that they use once a month to provide shelter for families. Local churches also operate food banks. 

To help with this outreach, Dorhauer said the entire denomination was invited last year to read and discuss "Evicted."