We have failed to fully appreciate how deeply housing is implicated in the creation of poverty. Not everyone living in a distressed neighborhood is associated with gang members, parole officers, employers, social workers, or pastors. But nearly all of them have a landlord.
-- Matthew Desmond (Prologue paragraph 4)

Importance: Here, the author argues that eviction is under-considered as compared to other social problems.

The high demand for the cheapest housing told landlords that for every family in a unit there were scores behind them ready to take their place. In such an environment, the incentive to lower the rent, forgive a late payment, or spruce up your property was extremely low.
-- Matthew Desmond (chapter 4 paragraph 1)

Importance: This demonstrates why landlords were not motivated to lower rents to more affordable levels.

Eviction had a way of causing not one move but two: a forced move into degrading and sometimes dangerous housing and an intentional move out of it. But the second move...
-- Matthew Desmond (chapter 6 paragraph 1)