Des Moines City Councilman Josh Mandelbaum gave his council colleagues each a copy of  “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City” for the holidays. The council has a tradition of exchanging gifts at the end of December.  

Mandelbaum had picked the book up after he saw it on President Barack Obama’s reading list for 2017. When U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey came to Iowa and talked about the book, Mandelbaum finally read it. 
 
“Matthew Desmond does an amazing job of telling the story of multiple families from different backgrounds struggling to afford housing and facing eviction,” Mandelbaum wrote in his newsletter for constituents. “The stories he tells are important perspective for any policy maker to hear, engage with, and keep in mind as we make decisions. The stories themselves are worth the read.
 
“‘Evicted’ also sheds light on the interaction between policy and the struggles people in poverty face. For example, the book illustrates how people struggling to pay rent avoid calling inspectors that would make their living conditions habitable because of the risk of retaliation. This underscores the importance of adequate rental inspectors to ensure rental housing stock meets minimum standards rather than relying on a complaint-based system. The book highlights the problems with lack of access to legal counsel and the impacts that has during eviction hearings. That underscores the importance of organizations like Iowa Legal Aid.
 
“Perhaps most significantly, the book demonstrates the importance of housing stability and how so much else in life can be impacted by volatility around one’s home. Desmond recommends a universal voucher program as a potential policy solution to provide affordable, stable housing. One of the steps that Des Moines could take toward this end would be adopting a Legal Source of Income non-discrimination ordinance so that landlords could not reject a tenant that would pay using a Section 8 voucher. I will be working toward this goal. I hope my colleagues read the book and take away similar lessons.”