Front flap of Book Jacket

 

Stories from the tenant’s downstairs are interconnected stories within one story. The story focuses on main characters expressing their own challenges when it comes to an economic issue. The economic issue in this story is gentrification. Gentrification happens when the wealthy moves into a poor urban area. The purpose of gentrification is to improve housing and attract new businesses into the area. In a poor urban area, the rent is income based and when that happens, the housing median income goes up. The area median income divides the population into two groups: half having an income above that amount or half having an income below that amount. If half of the tenant’s income is below that amount, they must move to an area within their income or face eviction. However, if they are facing eviction, they will begin to feel the exposure to poverty. Gentrification does not happen only to African Americans but happens to anyone living in a run-down area.