Summary: Part 1, Rent: Chapters 6–8

Chapter 6, “Rat Hole,” turns to the Hinkstons, who live near Lamar at 18th and Wright, one of Sherrena’s properties. When Patrice Hinkston was evicted from her apartment, she and her three children moved downstairs to live with her mom, Doreen Hinkston. Doreen’s other three children also live there. No one slept well in the crowded and cockroach-infested living space. But they’d had few other options due to a previous eviction, after which most landlords would not rent to them. Evictions often lead to two relocations: one to substandard housing and another to get out of the substandard housing. This has the secondary effect of creating slums that are made up entirely of substandard housing through which people pass without putting down roots.

Doreen’s home had multiple issues, including severe plumbing issues, but Sherrena was not motivated to fix them, noting that Doreen was breaking the terms of the lease by having Patrice living there. Doreen called a plumber and paid for the repair, then threatened to withhold her rent payment. Sherrena threatened to evict her. Then Natasha, one of Doreen’s other children, found out she was pregnant. The family talked about moving away and starting over somewhere else.

Chapter 7, “The Sick,” focuses on Scott and Teddy, who briefly took in Pam and Ned at the College Mobile Home Park. Pam and Ned left for a few days in hopes of stopping Scott and Teddy’s eviction. Scott, a gay man, had once been a nurse, but he lost his license after becoming addicted to opioids and stealing drugs from his patients. He’d lost everything and then met Teddy at a homeless shelter. It felt natural that he’d take care of Teddy, who had been partially paralyzed in a fall. They’d moved into the trailer park together. Other residents sold Scott drugs, so he was able to avoid withdrawal, or “the sick.” It turns out that residents weren’t screened well before being approved to live at College Mobile Home Park. Part of the reason was that people with addictions, criminal records, and other problems could be a source of profit.

Facing the upcoming eviction, Teddy moved out. Scott found work, but while he was at work one day, other trailer park residents looted his trailer.

In Chapter 8, “Christmas in Room 400,” Sherrena decides to evict Arleen because Arleen is too far behind on rent. December’s eviction hearings were held just a few days before Christmas, in Room 400 of the courthouse. The courtroom was filled with white lawyers hired by landlords. Most tenants didn’t come to court for their eviction hearings and were quickly evicted. The tenants who showed up were mostly Black women, many with children. Arleen was one. She agreed to move out by the end of the month.

Sherrena was also trying to collect rent and money for property damage from tenants and considered using a company like Rent Recovery Service to collect the debts. Services of this type monitored people’s credit reports. When the people seemed to be able to pay, the collection agency would begin trying to collect.

Analysis: Part 1, Rent: Chapters 6–8

In these chapters, the condition of the Hinkstons’ apartment brings into focus the harmful effects of living in substandard housing, even while it shows how difficult it is to get free of living in such housing. The Hinkstons live in what many people would call an unlivable situation, yet there seems to be no remedy. They can’t easily move because they have a previous eviction. And they can’t demand Sherrena address the problems because Sherrena can evict them and put some other tenant in their place. Desmond goes into gruesome detail about the conditions of the properties in Chapter 6, evoking a visceral reaction in readers. Then, when he reveals that Natasha is pregnant, readers understandably recoil from the idea of bringing a newborn baby into the house.

Desmond is similarly unflinching as he discusses the residents of the trailer park, and though he maintains a mostly objective tone without much loaded or evocative language, he also doesn’t gloss over the gritty details of people’s lives. This has the effect of helping readers see clearly individual tenants’ personal weaknesses and still understand how these people are victimized by a business model that exploits their weaknesses for profit.   

Desmond also points out that evictions harm not only the people who are displaced but also whole neighborhoods. Because there is always a need for quick, cheap housing for those recently evicted, there is a consistent pool of people who will pay to live in a place even if it is disgusting and unsafe. Not only does this lead to the development of slums but it also makes slums an integral part of the business model of the landlords. By emphasizing that slums provide a consistent profit for landlords and so are desirable from these landlords’ perspective, Desmond supports his claim that poverty is not just about the poor. It is about the relationship between the wealthy and the poor.