“The profits were staggering. In 1966, a Chicago landlord told a court that on a single property he had made $42,500 in rent but paid only $2,400 in maintenance. When accused of making excessive profits, the landlord simply replied, “That’s why I bought the building.”

Evanston-based sociologist and MacArthur Fellow, Desmond is an authority on housing insecurity in the United States. His work, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning *Evicted*, exposes systemic barriers to stable housing and their ripple effects on families and communities.