Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

Larraine tries to figure out how to find the rest of the money she needs to give Tobin to avoid being evicted. She calls different organizations to no avail. Larraine has a brother, Beaker, who lives in the trailer park, but he’s in the hospital and worse off than she is. Her sister Susan also lives in the park and is doing well, but she doesn’t trust Larraine to spend money wisely. There is another younger brother, Ruben, who has a good job and a nice house, but they are not close. Larraine has two daughters, Megan and Jayme, but the older daughter, Megan, will not loan her money, after Larraine failed to pay back an earlier debt. Jayme works at Arby’s as part of a prison work-release program and is willing to have her check sent to Larraine, but that won’t be soon enough to help. Larraine asks her pastor for help because his church lent her money once after she was robbed. This time, the pastor first asks Susan her opinion about doing this again. Susan says the church shouldn’t do it, and Larraine receives no help.

Eagle Moving and Storage—one slogan is “Order Some Carryout”—handles many of the city’s eviction moves, and those make up 40% of its business.