The Undesirable Many: Black Women and Their Struggles Against Displacement and Housing Insecurity in the...

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Rosemary Ndubuizu

The Undesirable Many

Black Women and Their Struggles Against Displacement and Housing Insecurity in the Nation's...

Rosemary Ndubuizu

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English

The University of North Carolina Press
04 November 2025

Urban communities; Gender studies, gender groups; Ethnic studies; Black & Asian studies

Series: Justice, Power, and Politics

Amid a national housing affordability crisis with political and social implications, Washington, DC is notorious for its rapidly rising income inequality, high rates of displacement, and some of the most expensive rents in the country. Housing policy expert Rosemary Ndubuizu uncovers more than

years of affordable housing politics in the nation's capital to illustrate local and national trends in how various social, economic, and political forces have worked together to ensure the persistent vulnerability of low-wage Black families to housing insecurity and displacement.

Since the

9 s, Black women have been at the forefront of combating efforts to force them out of DC. The Undesirable Many recounts the history of Black women's tenant activism and organized opposition through a Black feminist materialism framework that exposes present-day housing inequities as deeply entangled in the politics and practices of gender and racial inequity. Drawing upon extensive archival research and dozens of in-depth interviews with Black women tenant activists and affordable housing advocates, Ndubuizu uncovers how gendered stereotypes of Black tenant irresponsibility have shaped market behavior and informed political justification for different consumer treatment. Politicians, landlords, and even nonprofit housing providers often championed disciplinary housing governance such as mandatory housekeeping classes, welfare garnishment, paternal property management, and case management, contending that the problem was not housing but the Black family itself. By exposing these strategies alongside low-income Black women's political perspectives and experiences, The Undesirable Many offers valuable lessons for contemporary challenges in affordable housing advocacy and welfare politics.

By: Rosemary Ndubuizu
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 25mm, Spine: 155mm
ISBN: 9781469689678
ISBN 10: 1469689677
Series: Justice, Power, and Politics
Pages: 296
Publication Date: 04 November 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Rosemary Ndubuizu is assistant professor of Black studies at Georgetown University.

Reviews for The Undesirable Many: Black Women and Their Struggles Against Displacement and Housing Insecurity in the Nation's Capital

""A bold and novel intervention. Rosemary Ndubuizu historicizes the phenomenon of inbuilt obstacles that low-wage Black women have faced when seeking safe public housing and fills a dearth of scholarship on the political attacks on public housing in the post-civil rights period.""--Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership ""A deep and consequential story of how DC officials and landlords employed cultural stereotypes to justify a regime that tied poor Black families' access to good housing to their willingness to endure state surveillance.""--George Derek Musgrove, coauthor of Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation's Capital