Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

“Sherrena shared something with other landlords: an unbending confidence she could make it on her own […] that she could strike out into nothing and through her own gumption and intelligence come back with a good living.” 

Early on, landlord Sherrena Tarver is presented as being like the heroine of a Horatio Alger story, a person whose sheer force of will and work ethic builds a real-estate portfolio worth two million dollars. This is how most of the landlords like to see themselves: as heroes overcoming the odds—tenants, building inspectors, the legal system—to come out on top. As the book progresses, Sherrena proves to be completely amoral, lacking any compassion, and interested in only one thing: the accumulation of money no matter the cost everyone else around her must bear. 

“He’s a player, that’s all he is. Time for him to go […] They just try to take, take, take, take, take.” 

This is what Lora, Sherrena’s friend who’s also a landlord, thinks about Lamar Richards, Sherrena’s tenant. Lamar has no legs below his knees and has been crawling around on the floor painting an apartment for Sherrena, in order to catch up on his rent, but the women see him as they see virtually all renters: impediments to collecting the money they so richly deserve

“Sometimes I’m a shrink […] Sometimes I’m the village asshole.”

This is how Lenny characterizes his job as the onsite property manager at College Mobile Home Park. Lenny is not completely uncaring, but he has one goal in mind regarding his interactions with the trailer park residents: collecting enough rent each month to earn his bonuses.