About this episode
Last week, the federal government, in a limited way, extended the eviction moratorium in place since the start of the pandemic. It's a temporary solution to a long-looming crisis — a crisis we explored in our series " The Scarlet E: Unmasking America’s Eviction Crisis " back in 2019. In this excerpt from that series, we catalog the long line of thefts and schemes — most of which were perfectly legal at the time — that led to where we are today: a system, purpose-built, that extracts what it can, turning black and brown renters into debtors and evictees. Matthew Desmond [ @just_shelter ], founder of The Eviction Lab and our partner in this series, and Marty Wegbreit, director of litigation for the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society , point us toward the legal and historical developments that evolved into the present crisis. And WBEZ’s Natalie Moore [ @natalieymoore ] , whose grandparents moved to Chicago during the Great Migration, shows us around a high-eviction area on Chicago’s South Side. On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today ( https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm ). Follow our show on Instagram , Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.