We are so thrilled to announce that Matthew Desmond, the winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, the 2017 PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award, and the 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award for Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, will be our keynote speaker for the 2021 Beyond the Build Benefit.
June 3, 2021 | 12:00 noon – 1:00pm
Matthew’s keynote could not be more timely given the significant impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on affordable housing, even considering how limited the Puget Sound region’s affordable housing landscape was pre-COVID. The resulting loss of a large number of service-sector jobs has now put hard-working, low-income families at risk of eviction.
In his acclaimed book, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, Matthew provides a look into the eviction situation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is told through the stories of families he lived with while researching his book.
The effects of his experiences go far beyond inadequate shelter, Matthew says. “I think that whatever we care about — whatever is our issue that keeps us up at night — a lack of affordable housing is going to be somewhere at the center of it.”
Register now for this amazing chance to hear more about these personal stories, and how you can help change this landscape and the future for us all – and help us celebrate our affiliate’s 35th anniversary!