APA Citation
Desmond, M. (2016). Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. Crown.
Summary
Desmond's groundbreaking ethnographic study follows eight families in Milwaukee as they navigate eviction, poverty, and housing instability. Through detailed observation and analysis, the research reveals how eviction functions as both a cause and consequence of poverty, creating cycles of displacement that devastate communities. The work exposes the profit-driven dynamics that maintain housing inequality and demonstrates how forced displacement affects every aspect of families' lives, from children's education to mental health outcomes.
Why This Matters for Survivors
Housing instability profoundly impacts abuse survivors, who often face economic manipulation and isolation from narcissistic partners. Understanding these systemic barriers helps survivors recognize that housing struggles aren't personal failures but structural inequalities. This research validates the real challenges survivors face when leaving abusive relationships and highlights why comprehensive support systems are essential for recovery and independence.
What This Research Establishes
• Housing instability creates cascading trauma that affects every aspect of life, from children’s education to adults’ mental health, establishing clear links between displacement and psychological distress
• Economic exploitation operates systematically through profit-driven housing markets that target vulnerable populations, paralleling how narcissistic abusers exploit economic vulnerabilities in relationships
• Eviction functions as both cause and consequence of poverty, creating cycles that trap families in instability much like trauma bonds trap survivors in abusive relationships
• Structural barriers compound individual struggles, demonstrating that housing insecurity results from systemic inequalities rather than personal failures, validating survivors’ experiences with economic manipulation
Why This Matters for Survivors
This research validates what many survivors know intimately: that losing stable housing creates profound trauma extending far beyond the loss of physical shelter. When narcissistic partners use economic abuse to damage your credit, sabotage employment, or control housing decisions, the resulting instability isn’t your fault—it’s a predictable outcome of systematic manipulation designed to maintain control.
Desmond’s work shows how eviction and housing instability compound existing trauma, creating additional stress that can interfere with healing and recovery. Understanding these dynamics helps normalize the overwhelming nature of rebuilding after abuse, recognizing that housing challenges stem from both individual trauma and broader systemic inequalities that disadvantage vulnerable populations.
The research illuminates why leaving abusive relationships is so difficult when housing options are limited or controlled by the abuser. Many survivors stay in dangerous situations because they cannot secure safe, affordable housing—a rational response to impossible circumstances rather than evidence of weakness or poor decision-making.
Most importantly, this work demonstrates that stable housing serves as a foundation for all other aspects of recovery. When survivors have secure, affordable housing, they can better focus on healing, rebuilding relationships, pursuing education or employment, and creating the independent life they deserve.
Clinical Implications
Therapists working with abuse survivors must understand that housing instability represents a major barrier to recovery that extends beyond individual therapy work. Clients experiencing housing insecurity may have difficulty engaging consistently in treatment, managing trauma symptoms, or implementing therapeutic strategies when their basic safety and shelter needs remain unmet.
Economic abuse often includes deliberate destruction of credit scores, employment sabotage, and financial manipulation that creates lasting barriers to securing housing. Clinicians should normalize these struggles and help clients understand that housing difficulties stem from abuse-related financial damage rather than personal inadequacy.
Trauma-informed care requires recognizing how housing instability retraumatizes survivors and compounds existing PTSD symptoms. The chronic stress of housing insecurity can interfere with trauma processing and emotional regulation, requiring therapists to adapt treatment approaches and timelines accordingly.
Effective treatment planning should include connecting survivors with housing resources, financial counseling, and legal advocacy services. Therapists may need to serve as advocates, writing support letters for housing applications or collaborating with case managers to address practical barriers that impact therapeutic progress.
How This Research Is Used in the Book
Narcissus and the Child draws on Desmond’s findings to help survivors understand how economic abuse creates systematic barriers to independence and recovery. The book uses this research to validate the real challenges survivors face when attempting to rebuild their lives after narcissistic abuse.
“As Desmond’s groundbreaking research reveals, housing instability creates trauma that compounds the wounds of abuse. When your narcissistic partner damaged your credit, controlled your finances, or sabotaged your employment, they created barriers that extend far beyond the relationship itself. Understanding these structural inequalities helps you recognize that your struggles with housing aren’t evidence of failure—they’re predictable consequences of systematic abuse designed to maintain control even after you’ve found the courage to leave.”
Historical Context
Published in 2016 during a period of rising housing costs and growing awareness of inequality, Evicted provided crucial documentation of how housing instability functions as a driver of poverty and trauma. The work emerged as domestic violence advocates increasingly recognized economic abuse as a primary tool of coercive control, helping establish connections between housing policy and survivor safety that continue to influence legislation and support services.
Further Reading
• Goodman, L., Smyth, K. F., Borges, A. M., & Singer, R. (2009). When crises collide: How intimate partner violence and poverty intersect to shape women’s mental health and coping. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 10(4), 306-329.
• Rollins, C., Glass, N. E., Perrin, N. A., Billhardt, K. A., Clough, A., Barnes, J., … & Bloom, T. L. (2012). Housing instability is as strong a predictor of poor health outcomes as level of danger in an abusive relationship. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 27(4), 623-643.
• Tran, L., Nesman, T., DiLollo, A., & Clarke, J. (2018). Domestic violence survivors’ economic security and the role of housing instability. Psychology of Violence, 8(4), 400-409.
About the Author
Matthew Desmond is the Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology at Princeton University and Principal Investigator of the Eviction Lab. A MacArthur Fellow and Pulitzer Prize winner, Desmond's research focuses on poverty, inequality, and social policy. His work has influenced housing policy nationwide and established eviction as a critical area of poverty research. He combines rigorous social science methodology with compassionate storytelling to illuminate systemic inequalities.
Historical Context
Published during rising national awareness of housing inequality, this work emerged as gentrification and housing costs were displacing vulnerable populations nationwide. The research provided crucial evidence for housing-first policies and influenced discussions about poverty during a period of growing wealth inequality in America.
Frequently Asked Questions
Housing instability creates vulnerability to abuse and makes leaving dangerous relationships more difficult. Survivors often face economic manipulation that damages their credit and rental history.
Economic abuse involves controlling financial resources, damaging credit, preventing employment, or creating financial dependence to maintain power over a partner.
Survivors often have damaged credit from financial abuse, limited employment history due to isolation, and face discrimination from landlords regarding domestic violence history.
Eviction creates additional trauma through loss of stability, community connections, and safety. This compounds existing trauma from abuse and can trigger PTSD symptoms.
Resources include transitional housing programs, rapid rehousing assistance, domestic violence shelters, and housing voucher programs specifically for survivors.
Abusive partners may control leases, damage rental history, threaten homelessness, or sabotage housing applications to maintain power and prevent leaving.
Therapists should understand that housing instability isn't a personal failure but often results from systemic barriers and economic abuse that creates lasting financial damage.
Rebuilding involves accessing survivor-specific resources, working with housing advocates, slowly reestablishing credit, and finding trauma-informed landlords and programs.