Indefensible Spaces : Policing and the Struggle for Housing

Abstract

Indefensible Spaces examines the policing of housing through the story of Black community building in the Antelope Valley, Los Angeles County’s northernmost outpost. Tracing its evolution from a segregated postwar suburb to a destination for those priced, policed, and evicted out of Los Angeles, Rahim Kurwa tells the story of how the Antelope Valley resisted Black migration through the policing of subsidized housing—and how Black tenants and organizers fought back. This book sheds light on how the nation’s policing and housing crises intersect, offering powerful lessons for achieving housing justice across the country. “With analytical acumen and literary panache worthy of the late Mike Davis, Rahim Kurwa reveals how housing vouchers promising to liberate impoverished residents from prison‑like projects actually fueled even greater anti‑Black police repression—but like fugitives from the antebellum South, Antelope Valley tenants organized, resisted, and demanded their right to the suburb.” — ROBIN D. G. KELLEY, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination “A sociological treat.” — EDUARDO BONILLA‑SILVA, author of Racism without Racists: Color‑Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America “Lucid, evocative, and a pleasure to read.” — DAANIKA GORDON, author of Policing the Racial Divide: Urban Growth Politics and the Remaking of Segregation “Deeply researched and compelling.” — EVA ROSEN, author of The Voucher Promise: “Section 8” and the Fate of an American Neighborhood “Kurwa’s theoretical contributions will inspire scholarship for many years to come.” — ELIZABETH KORVER‑GLENN, coauthor of A Good Reputation: How Residents Fight for an American Barrio “Sobering but inspiring, this is ultimately a hopeful text: despite the disadvantages they face, Antelope Valley tenants have come together and set a bold vision for housing justice.” — MONICA BELL, Yale University