Learn about eviction at new Moline exhibit
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Project NOW opened a free exhibit on eviction Wednesday, May 15, 2024, in SouthPark Mall (4500 16th St., Moline).
The exhibit – “Evicted” — is in the old Express Store, across from Dory’s Hallmark.
On hand for the opening were Dwight Ford, Project NOW’s executive director; Brenda O’Connell, Illinois Housing Development Authority Senior Policy Advisor for Special Populations; David Esposito, executive director of the Supportive Housing Providers Association, and Moline Mayor Sangeetha Rayapati.
Every eight seconds, someone in America is being evicted from their home, according to Project NOW. The Evicted exhibition brings visitors into the world of low-income renter eviction. The exhibit challenges visitors to face the enormity of one of 21st-century America’s most devastating problems while providing context for the crisis and a call to action, a Project NOW release says.
In April 2018, the National Building Museum opened a new, “eye-opening” exhibit exploring the causes and impacts of eviction, based on Matthew Desmond’s book of the same name.
“Evicted” was winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction.
Desmond is a professor of sociology at Princeton University. After receiving his Ph.D. in 2010 from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, he joined the Harvard Society of Fellows as a Junior Fellow.
He is the author of four books, including Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (2016), which won the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, and Carnegie Medal, and PEN / John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction. The principal investigator of The Eviction Lab, Desmond’s research focuses on poverty in America, city life, housing insecurity, public policy, racial inequality, and ethnography.
On view through Aug. 10, 2024
Since 2018, thousands of people have come to see the “Evicted” exhibit to learn more about the national eviction crisis. Project NOW is hosting the free presentation until August 10th. It is being sponsored by the Supportive Housing Providers Association and the Illinois Office to Prevent and End Homelessness.
A stable place to call home is one of the best predictors of success. Yet, each year more than 2.3 million Americans, most of them low-income renters, face eviction, Project NOW says. While it used to be rare even in the poorest neighborhoods, forcible removal has become ordinary, with families facing eviction from the most squalid, barely inhabitable apartments. This phenomenon exposes not only income inequality in America, but also the growing separation between the built environments of the rich and the poor.
Housing instability threatens all aspects of family life: health, jobs, school, and personal relationships. Landlords hesitate to rent to those with eviction records, or charge them extra money, causing a devastating negative feedback loop. Children switch schools too often to make friends or be noticed and helped by teachers; neighbors cannot develop bonds; personal belongings are left in storage or out on the street.
Americans often take home for granted-home forms the building blocks of community life-and this stability is under attack when eviction looms, Project NOW says.
In “Evicted,” specially commissioned visual infographics and forward-thinking design introduce visitors to the numbers and statistics they need to know in order to understand the crisis. Rates of evictions indifferent markets make evident the depths of the problem. Working together, these elements amplify tenants’ voices, as they explain in their own words the impact eviction has on them and their loved ones.
Traveling Evicted
The traveling version of Evicted offers an opportunity to bring the exhibition away from the center of Washington politics and advocacy to address new audiences. In cities across Illinois, students and families who are unfamiliar with the eviction crisis can learn about how it is affecting their own communities.
SHPA is a statewide membership association of non-profit providers of supportive housing. SHPA facilitates Illinois Homelessness Education and Technical Assistance Center. The “Evicted” exhibit is made possible by the TA Center and support from the Illinois Department of Human Services.
The Illinois Office to Prevent and End Homelessness coordinates state strategies and investments and partners with the community to build a strong safety net and permanent housing for Illinoisans facing homelessness and housing insecurity. IOPEH was created in 2021 by Gov. JB Pritzker.
Additional dates and times to view the exhibit are listed HERE.
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