Ep. 30: #Nerdfarmreads Bookclub “Evicted” — Matt Driscoll, Candice Ruud, and Halley Knigge

Matt Driscoll: Columnist for The News Tribune, Decent Dude: “What I gathered from Evicted are the Stories.”

Candice Ruud: Government Beat Writer of News Tribune, Former New Yorker: “We all come from different places and we could all end up experiencing homelessness.”

Halley Knigge: Professional Communicator, Astute Reader, Cancer-Beating Bad Ass, Raconteur : “This book is perspective changing.”

Evicted is a book of our times, the tales of vulnerable families, living on the brink, and sometimes going over the edge into poverty.

4:30: As the relationship between tenant and landlord becomes more transactional, It makes people living in rentals more vulnerable. Sharina, the landlord in Evicted, is such a landlord. The book gives perspective on both the harsh reality and necessity of the character, her job, and her lifestyle.

11:30: Halley shares her personal struggle with cancer and how this book both impacted her and brought to light all the “what-ifs” and “maybes” that could have broken her and her family with recent developments in her life.

16:30: Is there an eviction epidemic in Tacoma? If so, how are we handling it, if at all? We do have a waitlist for Section 8 housing that is not much more than a lottery.

21:00: The panel discusses not their favorite, but most resonant passages of the text.

30:00: Once you have an eviction, the difficulty increases. An eviction severely limits one’s ability to get good housing, as well as the location of the housing. Some persons would like to argue that is is our choices to lead us to the lives we live. But what are the choices?

34:00 How can we make connections from Evicted to Tacoma Current State of Affairs? How do we define affordable housing and what is it?

38:00: Why is there so little political energy guided toward this problem?

43:00: Where are the points of light and hope in the book?

48:00: Advice from the panelists about why listeners should read this book?