Evicted: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

Arleen is happy in her new home, despite the group of crack addicts who have recently moved in next door. She repaints the apartment and admires her own handiwork. Jori and Jafaris befriend the neighborhood boys. Arleen likes that the unit above hers is empty, and she sometimes goes there after the boys are in bed, enjoying having space to herself. A friend gives Arleen a cat, which Sherenna allows her to keep. The family call it Little; the boys love when Little catches mice.

One day, Jafaris has a pretty bad asthma attack and Jori takes him home from school, where Arleen is waiting. Although Jafaris’ asthma has been improving, Arleen worries about him. He has been struggling with some subjects in school, and one of his teachers suggested medication. Arleen believes Jafaris needs “one-on-one attention,” not pills. Jafaris’ father was violent with Arleen, and soon after the two stopped seeing each other he went to prison. Arleen’s father had also left her mother, who was only 16 when she had her. At 17, Arleen dropped out of school.

Around the same time, Arleen met a man who was constantly in and out of jail. She got pregnant and had a son nicknamed Ger-Ger. Shortly after she started dating another man, Larry. She and Larry had four children together, two daughters and two sons, the youngest of whom they named Jori. Larry asked Arleen to marry him but Arleen was unsure, anxious about Larry’s judgmental mother and sister. Not long after, Larry started seeing other women, including one of Arleen’s best friends. He walked out on them, but he still comes by to see Jori and talk with Arleen about their son.

Since Larry left, Arleen has sometimes worked, but has often had to rely on welfare. As a result of her chronic depression she receives W-2T, which amounts to $7,536. Since the mid 1990s, rent prices have skyrocketed but welfare stipends in most parts of the US have remained the same. If Arleen was the recipient of public housing or a housing voucher, she would have spent only 30% of her income on rent, which would have meant “the difference between stable poverty and grinding poverty.”

Arleen had rented a subsidized apartment for a period when she was 19, just after having Ger-Ger. Shortly after, a friend asked her to move in, and Arleen left public housing for the private rental market, a decision she regrets to this day. She wishes she still lived in that same subsidized apartment, which cost her $137 a month. The waiting list for public housing is frozen in Milwaukee, as it is in most American cities. In some places, it would take many decades before an applicant would be considered for public housing. On average, ¾ of American families who qualify for housing assistance do not receive it. 

Before long, a woman named Trisha moves into the empty unit above Arleen’s apartment. Arleen and Trisha get along well. Trisha has a history of homelessness, sex work, and drug use. Now, she buys loose cigarettes for her and Arleen to smoke together and she watches Jori and Jafaris when Arleen is busy with errands. When a moving van comes to confiscate the furniture in Arleen’s apartment, Trisha backs up Arleen’s lie that Sherenna had already taken it. Trisha invents an elaborate backstory about her friendship with Arleen, and it is unclear to what extent Trisha believes it to be true.

Trisha arrived in Sherenna’s building via Belinda Hall, a black woman who runs a business managing the finances of SSI beneficiaries. Sherenna likes working with social service agencies because they provide extra security with potentially risky tenants. Sherenna had even promised to empty all her properties if Belinda wanted to fill them with her clients. Belinda charges her 230 clients $37 a month for her services. Through working with Sherenna, her number of clients continues to grow.

Sherenna calls Arleen and reminds her that she owes her $320 for her sister’s funeral in addition to this month’s rent. Despite her current financial hardship, Arleen does not regret borrowing the money from Sherenna. Initially Sherenna took pity on Arleen, but now that it was becoming clear that Arleen would be unable to pay her back she felt differently. After forgetting to attend a meeting with her welfare caseworker, she received a reduced welfare check.