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Strange Fruit: Black Southerners And The Eviction Crisis

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Affordable and stable housing has long been a pipe dream for many Americans. And new research shows it's farther out of reach in certain parts of the country than others.

In 2016, American property owners filed at least 2.3 million eviction claims. Princeton’s Eviction Lab, which recently released the nation’s largest eviction database, revealed that the Southern region of the U.S. is the area most impacted by evictions and that black renters are disproportionately affected by the eviction crisis.

Eviction Lab’s report revealed that nine of the 10 cities with the highest eviction rates are not only located in southern states but are also cities that are at least 30 percent black in population.

This week we chat with Atlanta-based journalist Max Blau about why southern renters are losing their homes at such high rates, and we examine some of the social and political obstacles standing in the way of safe, stable and affordable housing for many African-Americans.

Listen to the show:

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Laura is LPM's Director of Podcasts & Special Projects. Email Laura at lellis@lpm.org.