Evicted Exhibit
About Evicted
Inspired by Matthew Desmond’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Evicted brings visitors into the world of low-income renter eviction. The exhibit challenges visitors to face the enormity of one of 21st-century America’s most devastating problems, while providing context for the crisis and a call to action.
The exhibition also highlights ways that some local and state governments and nonprofits are intervening to upend the cycle of chronic evictions, such as Right to Counsel laws and new affordable housing projects. Visitors leave armed with ideas for ways they can enact change in their jurisdictions and help alleviate the downward spiral for those already living on the economic edge.
Facing the Housing Crisis in Sweet Home Alabama
The ACFA curated a companion piece to the Evicted exhibit focused on eviction, housing, and poverty in Alabama and its four largest metropolitan areas: Birmingham, Montgomery, Huntsville, and Mobile. This companion exhibit visualizes the state of housing and poverty over time in these communities and highlight organizations working to improve housing for families across the state.
The Burden of Renting in Alabama:
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines “rent burdened” as spending more than 30% of income on housing and “severely rent burdened” as spending more than 50% of income on housing.
In the Birmingham Hoover – HMFA (HUD Metro Fair Market Rate Area) the average renter earns $16.49/hour and can afford to pay $863 before becoming rent burdened. The average rent for a modest 2 bedroom apartment in this metro is $1,002.
In the Mobile HMFA the average renter earns $13.70/hour and can afford to pay $712 before becoming rent burdened. The average rent for a modest 2 bedroom apartment in this metro is $824.
In the Montgomery HMFA the averag renter earns $13.41/hour and can afford to pay $697 before becoming rent burdened. The average rent for a modest 2 bedroom apartment in this metro is $908.
About the book
In Evicted, Princeton sociologist and MacArthur “Genius” Matthew Desmond follows eight families in Milwaukee as they each struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Hailed as “wrenching and revelatory” (The Nation), “vivid and unsettling” (New York Review of Books), Evicted transforms our understanding of poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving one of twenty-first-century America’s most devastating problems. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible.
Evicted Data & Creators
Developed in collaboration with designers MATTER Architecture Practice and mgmt. design, Evicted includes specially commissioned visual infographics and forward-thinking design to introduce visitors to the numbers and statistics that will help them to better understand the causes for and ramifications of chronic eviction. Data developed by the Eviction Lab—the first central repository for national eviction data—highlights rates of evictions in different markets and makes evident the depths of the problem. Working together, these elements amplify the stories of tenant families, as they explain in their own words and images the impact eviction has on them and their loved ones. Videos were created by Unfurl Productions, a media company devoted to nonfiction storytelling.
Sponsors
This exhibition is generously supported by Ford Foundation; Amy C. Falls; Wells Fargo Housing Foundation; Chan Zuckerberg Initiative DAF, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation; AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust; The Annie E. Casey Foundation; International Masonry Institute; International Council of Employers of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers and the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers; Enterprise Community Partners; LISC, in memory of Oramenta Newsome; Charles P. and Shari Lawrence Pfleeger; Venable Foundation; and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.