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Desmond matthew6/8/2023 ![]() ![]() The impact of Desmond’s work, which has been likened to that of seminal ethnographers like Jacob Riis, is already shaping public policy. ![]() ![]() And in neighborhoods that have experienced increases in evictions, a rise in crime follows within the year. The effects of eviction, which Desmond found had happened to 1 in 8 poor people in Milwaukee in the two years before they were surveyed, do not stop there: Missed school for children, difficulty finding new rental housing, depression and other health issues, and lost property (everything from basic furniture to irreplaceable family heirlooms) are all common. One of his most notable discoveries was that evictions often were not the result of losing a job but rather the cause, a potentially game-changing insight into what traps people in poverty. A word of advice for the next president: Fight poverty.ĭesmond, a Harvard sociologist, challenged stale notions about how poverty works through intimate portraits of eight families. Something to miss about President Obama? His intelligence, dignity and moral clarity-and Michelle. Does America need to be “made great again”? American greatness can be further unlocked if opportunity is expanded to all people within its borders. Favorite book this year: “Citizen: An American Lyric,” by Claudia Rankine, and “Up in the Old Hotel,” by Joseph Mitchell. ![]()
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