Bay Area housing ‘really grim,’ but there’s hope
‘Evicted’ author Matthew Desmond thinks the narrative is changing
SAN FRANCISCO » Calling the Bay Area’s housing crisis “really grim,” Matthew Desmond, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Evicted,” on Friday said there’s hope on the horizon — a burgeoning equitable housing movement that is picking up speed.
“I’m encouraged. I think that the narrative is changing. But we’re up against a really big problem,” Desmond said in an interview with this news organization after giving a speech in San Francisco.
Desmond’s book, which chronicles the lives of tenants living through evictions in Milwaukee, sparked a national conversation about housing when it was published in 2016, and quickly turned Desmond into the celebrity face of the country’s affordable housing crisis.
On Friday, Desmond spoke about his research during Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco’s “Framing the Future” luncheon at San Francisco’s Julia Morgan Ballroom. The event, which included an auction and charity drive to raise money for Habitat’s housing projects, drew families who had received help from the organization, as well as donors.
Housing instability is an epidemic sweeping the country’s low-income families, and it’s costing people their jobs, their health and well-being and their
futures, Desmond said, as he recounted the story of a single mother he followed through eviction after eviction in Milwaukee.
“Evictions, which used to be rare in this country, which used to draw crowds, are not just a condition of poverty, they’re a cause of poverty,” he said.
Desmond’s stories of families suffering through repeated evictions and selling their food stamps to pay rent moved San Francisco resident Gloria Pouncil, who attended the talk.
“That was mind-boggling — I just didn’t realize that that was a reality for some people,” said 57-year-old Pouncil, who received help with home renovations from Habitat this year. “That was an eye-opener for me.”
Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco CEO Maureen Sedonaen, who highlighted Habitat’s Bay Area housing projects before Desmond took the stage, pledged to help stamp out housing instability.
“In our backyards we can and will stand up,” she said. “We will take action. We will join together. And we’re going to make a difference.”
The crisis is felt acutely in the Bay Area, where rents are extraordinarily high, Desmond said. Last year there were 3,205 eviction filings reported in San Francisco, he said, citing data from a San Francisco tenant attorney and the county sheriff’s office.
“Poverty and the housing crisis is reducing people born for better things,” he said.
After “Evicted” was published, Desmond got a first-hand glimpse of the struggles Bay Area residents face to stay housed, the author said after his speech. As he promoted his book, Desmond did radio interviews in cities across the country, and heard stories from people at risk of losing their homes.
“And then you’d do a show in California, in the Bay Area, and the callers were completely different,” he said. “I remember this one caller, she was in her 70s, she was a cookbook author. She couldn’t hang onto her apartment.”
That’s the “grim side” of the Bay Area, Desmond said — older, long-term residents losing their homes.
“It’s kind of a different side of the housing crisis than you’re seeing in other places,” he said.
Still, Desmond said he’s heartened whenever he visits the Bay Area to see the steps cities, politicians and activists are taking. In June, for example, San Francisco voters passed a measure that guarantees legal representation to tenants facing eviction. And Bay Area cities that never in the past made housing a top priority are doing so now, Desmond said.
Still, there’s more work to be done in San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area.
“You have many people that are OK with identifying as progressives until you want to build in their neighborhood,” Desmond said. “And I think the city needs to have a real serious conversation about that. Do we get to call ourselves progressives? Do we get to claim the mantle of a progressive city if it’s a city that’s only for wealthy people?”