Evicted Summary and Analysis

Summary: Prologue–Part 1, Rent: Chapter 2

The prologue, “Cold City,” opens with a scene from January 2008. Thirteen-year-old Jori was throwing snowballs at passing cars outside his home on Milwaukee’s South Side. One man, angered, stopped his car and kicked the door of their apartment in. When the landlord heard about the incident, she evicted Jori’s family, including his mom, Arleen, and his 5-year-old brother, Jafaris. Eventually, they found another rental for $550 a month, 88% of their monthly welfare check.

Chapter 1, “The Business of Owning the City,” picks up on Arleen‘s story with a look at her new landlord, Sherrena Tarver. A former teacher, Sherrena had built up a business renting out homes in the inner city. One day, Sherrena was out checking on her properties. She served eviction notices to a few of them, including Lamar, who is a double amputee, and a woman named Patrice. She had trouble with another tenant, whose mother had called the city to complain about the house not being up to code. Sherrena decided to evict this tenant. Arleen and her family became the new tenants.

In Chapter 2, “Making Rent,” the narrative turns to Lamar, a while after he’d been served with the eviction notice. His home was a hangout for the neighborhood boys. Lamar didn’t have a job—at the time, Milwaukee had a high unemployment rate, and for working-age Black men the rate was extremely high. His government welfare payment went mostly to rent, and a mistake at the welfare office had left him missing a month’s rent—hence, the eviction notice. He tried to pay Sherrena by painting one of her other apartment units.

In another part of town, Sherrena attended a meeting of other area landlords—a profession that had grown exponentially since the 1970s. They talked about hiding the presence of asbestos, garnishing wages, and collecting rent from difficult tenants. After the meeting, Sherrena told her friend Lora she’d decided not to accept Lamar’s painting work as rent.

Analysis: Prologue–Part 1, Rent: Chapter 2

These opening chapters feature characters whose lives involve evictions, one way or another. Arleen, Patrice, and Lamar are all either facing eviction or have been evicted. Common threads already emerge between them. Both Arleen and Lamar rely on welfare to get by, and both pay most of this monthly income to rent, leaving very little for other needs. Saving up is out of the question, so these tenants are always on the brink of eviction. One small incident can push them over the edge. An angry driver chasing a young boy for throwing a snowball, in Arleen’s case, leads to an eviction. A mistake at the welfare office means an eviction notice for Lamar. Sherrena decides to evict another tenant for a complaint about the condition of her rental unit.

The cyclical nature of evictions is also evident in these chapters. Arleen’s situation is very unstable, and she has a history of being in and out of housing already. She is now able to find a new place because another tenant was evicted. Arleen is both the victim and beneficiary of evictions. It’s clear the turnover rate is high.

On the other side of the coin are the landlords, who have enormous power over the lives of their tenants. They have the power to provide housing and to take it away, almost at will. The landlords’ meeting emphasizes how and why these landlords wield that power. They are making large amounts of profit. And they are doing it by hiding dangers such as asbestos and by squeezing the poorest tenants for rent that is barely affordable even if it is very low.