Rsa Events

Lack of affordable housing is one of the defining social justice issues of our times. Eviction can lead to a cascade of events that can trap families in a cycle of poverty for years. Matthew Desmond is a social scientist and ethnographer, co-director of the Justice and Poverty Project at Harvard University, and a 2015 MacArthur ‘Genius’ award winner. In this election year, Desmond’s landmark work of reportage Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City offers a searing portrait of the contemporary US, where fewer and fewer people can afford a roof over their head. At the RSA, Matthew Desmond is joined by Shelter’s CEO Campbell Robb; journalist Owen Jones and Sky News editor Afua Hirsch, to explore the impact of eviction on the lives of the urban poor and its role in perpetuating racial and economic inequality.