Housing Book Club

Each week a new discussion will be featured with questions regarding material from each section of the book. Join the conversation and provide your thoughts and ideas below. As you engage in the conversation, be courteous to others and add value to the topics. 

Please be sure to indicate what question you are responding to. We also encourage comments on others' responses as well. 

Discussion Questions for Prologue & Chapter 1:

1) Have you or anyone you know experienced eviction? Describe their experience and/or imagine how your life would change if you had to leave your home and possessions. 

2) What would happen if your children played a prank like throwing snowballs at cars? Would the chain of consequences likely include your family being homeless? • Would your landlord evict you if someone else damaged your home? Why or why not? 

3) What percentage of your income do you pay for housing? If you paid 88% of your monthly income for housing, how would that impact your life? •

4) What do you think of when you imagine a landlord? How does Shereena’s business model and responsibilities/challenges she encounters while managing her properties compare with your perception of a landlord

Feel free to add your thoughts, questions and responses to others. 

1. After Lamar pays his rent to Shereena, he has $78 left for the rest of the month. How can people move out of poverty when they cannot afford to save and build assets? Try out the Poverty Budget Simulator in the Engage GJ site. 
2. In Milwaukee, evictions spike in the summer and early fall and dip in November when the moratorium on winter utility disconnections begins.  If you were forced to choose between paying rent or heat, which would you choose? 
3. Tobin lived 70 miles away from the trailer park he owned. How might this kind of distance benefit a landlord? What problems might it create?
4. Milwaukee is a segregated city. What impact does a lack of interaction between different walks of life create? How could this separation be changed or alleviated?

Please join in a discussion with us. Feel free to answer all or some of the questions and comment on one another's posts as well. Be sure to include the question you are responding to in your post. 

Discussion Questions:

1. How is life disrupted for individuals at work and children at school while dealing with the stress of forced relocation?

2. How does someone facing forced relocation save for a security deposit and first month's rent, often in a very short amount of time, if they struggle to make it from one check to the next?

3. What does forced relocation do to the emotional health of a mother and child? How could a classroom teacher and school support a child who is experiencing housing insecurity?

4. How do you make choices with money when there isn't enough? Arleen cares deeply about Jafaris and Jori's education, and Jori's asthma, and works hard to make the apartment a nice home, but must also deal with choices that put the family against the housing. What does this stress do to a mother? 

5. What is the effect on a community of tenants living in substandard housing, and on an owner not having the capital to remedy the situation?

Please join in a discussion with us. Feel free to answer all or some of the questions and comment on one another's posts as well. Be sure to include the question you are responding to in your post. 

Discussion Questions: 

1. In Chapter 7, we learn about a landlord training program that Tobin is mandated to attend. Do you think landlord training should be mandatory? Why or why not? What topics do you think should be included in landlord training? 

2. Do you think tenants should be required to attend renter training? Why or why not? What might tenant training entail?

3. In Milwaukee, property managers like Lenny have access to a website that provides information about a prospective tenant's prior evictions, criminal convictions, child support disputes, and more, even if cases were dismissed. Do you think landlords should have access to these types of information? Why or why not? 

4. Milwaukee doesn't maintain a website that consolidates information about landlords' evictions, code violations, lead poisoning, or property tax payment histories. Should tenants be provided access to information about landlords and their properties?

4. Retaliatory eviction - evicting a tenant for reporting housing problems - is illegal. Some tenants, especially those in month-to-month leases, who are violating their lease for one reason or another, or who are behind in rent, are fearful that they will be evicted if they report unsafe and unsanitary housing code violations to the city. What would you do if you were evicted, or threatened with eviction, for reporting unsafe or unhealthy living conditions? 

Join the conversation and provide your thoughts and ideas below. As you engage in the conversation, be courteous to others and add value to the topics. 

Please be sure to indicate what question you are responding to. We also encourage comments on others' responses as well. 

Discussion Questions: 

 1. Sherrena decided to evict Arleen. At eviction court, Arleen agreed to voluntarily move out of the apartment before Sherrena called the sheriff. Do you think these types of voluntary move outs are common? Why or why not? Have you or someone you know ever had to "move out" in this way? What was the affect?
2. Unlike in criminal court, in civil court, poor people have no right to an attorney. Accordingly, in many housing courts around the country, 90% of landlords have attorneys and 90% of tenants do not. Do you feel this should be a service that is provided? Why or why not?
3. Money judgments stay on a tenant’s credit report for ten years, preventing property purchases and damaging credit. Rent Recovery Service, a debt collection service, claims to help tenants get back on their financial feet while charging high-interest rates. Do you feel that these types of programs are helpful? Why or why not? Do you feel that other types of services may be beneficial?

Discussion Questions from Section 1 for Wednesday (9/20) and Tuesday (9/26) 

1. After Lamar pays his rent to Shereena, he has $78 left for the rest of the month. How can people move out of poverty when they cannot afford to save and build assets?

2. The book describes Milwaukee to be very segregated, would you say there are similarities in Grand Junction with segregation (among neighborhoods, race, age, economic status)? Why or why not? What impact does a lack of interaction between different walks of life create? How could this separation be changed or alleviated? 

3. How did Tobin benefit from offering his tenants the “Handyman Special” (page 46)—giving families their trailers for free but charging them for lot rent? Why might tenants see this as a better deal than paying the equivalent in rent? How did the high demand for low-cost housing impact Tobin’s decisions about whether or not to repair property or forgive late payments? What incentives could be put in place to motivate landlords to maintain their properties? What risks do tenants take when filing a report with a building inspector? The Grand Junction Housing Division addresses this in housing strategy number 8: Provide financial support to existing housing and homelessness services and promote resident access to services. (to be expanded on more during meeting) 

https://www.gjcity.org/DocumentCenter/View/4541/Grand-Junction-Housing-Strategy-PDF?bidId=