The Hidden Rent

Eleanor Moss is eighty-four years old. She has lived in the same house for sixty years. Her husband, Harold, built the porch with his own hands. They raised two children, paid off the mortgage, and did everything America asked of them. She has paid $131,400 in property taxes on a house that cost $24,500. It isn't enough. When the county triples her assessment, Eleanor can't keep up. The notices pile up in a shoebox in her closet. She tells no one. She is not going to be a burden. By the time her granddaughter, Mel, finds the shoebox, the debt has been sold to an investor in Chicago. The foreclosure clock is running. And Eleanor has made a decision: she will die in her home before she lets them carry her out. The Hidden Rent follows one family's fight against a system designed to extract wealth from those who have the least. It follows the investor who approves a foreclosure in four seconds. The process server who knocks on the door and walks away. The councilwoman who cries but cannot act. The son paralyzed by shame. The daughter armed with solutions no one wants. And it follows Mel, who cannot save her grandmother's house - but refuses to let her grandmother's story disappear. A home paid for should be a home kept. This is the story of what happens when that promise breaks.