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Arleen Belle, a Black single mother in Milwaukee, paid $550 a month in rent out of a $628 welfare check, leaving her little for food, utilities or emergencies. When she paid for her sister's funeral she fell behind, was evicted, and cycled through shelters and substandard apartments while her sons changed schools repeatedly. Her case shows how a single shock, with no slack left in the budget, turns into displacement.
Eviction is a cause of poverty, not just a symptom of it. A forced move often costs the tenant their job and possessions and pushes them into worse housing in more dangerous neighborhoods. The court record then leads future landlords to reject them, so each eviction makes the next housing crisis more likely.
Milwaukee's nuisance property ordinance cited landlords when a property generated too many 911 calls within a short period, and many landlords responded by evicting the tenant. Women reporting domestic violence therefore faced a choice between calling for help and keeping their home. The rule became a tool that silenced abuse victims and was applied most heavily in Black neighborhoods.
Treat poverty as a profitable market, not only as a lack of resources. Landlord Sherrena Tarver said "the 'hood is good": inner-city rents are barely lower than in better neighborhoods, while property prices and upkeep are far cheaper. That gap produces higher margins on poor tenants. Seen this way, tenants' hardship is income for someone else, and it explains why the arrangement persists.