Matthew Desmond follows both the tenants, trying to survive on government assistance and the landlords trying to make a living from their tenants who often were in arrears of their rent payments. Rent in his studies was shown to be 50% of the tenant's income whereas the ideal allocation for income is 50% for all fixed expenses such as rent/mortgage, car loan, utilities and phone.
Many of the women in the study were unmarried with children from multiple fathers who did not contribute financially, leaving the woman to survive on welfare or work at several locations to support her children.
In the late 1970s and 1980s the poverty rate rose significantly when Milwakee became the center of de-industrialization and companies moved either overseas or to states where unions were weaker or didn't exist. Added to the plight of those relying on Welfare was Bill Clinton's Welfare Reform which required states to provide some of the funding, limits to welfare and a requirement for the recipient to work a certain number of hours either in a paid position or in a community non-paid job.
The poverty rate in Milwaukee still remains high (29% in 2017) with 40% of children living below the poverty line.
The author's notes at the end of the book states that Liberals see the problem as an economic one, the conservatives see it as a human one (poor choices)
I see it as somewhere in between. But without good role models children repeat the way of living of their parents, without education they are unable to get a decent paying job, without learning how to budget, they live beyond their means (one of the people in the book spent a whole week of food stamps on a lobster dinner!) Without contraception women have multiple children with different fathers.
East Lake Meadows is a documentary about public housing in Atlanta
