Arleen Bell
A kind-hearted African American woman who is living with her family in an apartment in Milwaukee until one day, they are evicted. The eviction leaves them without time to find a new place, and they end up living in the streets in the winter snow. The family was served an eviction notice without having done anything wrong. Suddenly, they just "weren't the right people" for the apartment. Throughout the novel, Arleen works hard to provide for her family, but they're up against a difficult fate.
Sherenna Tarver
This woman is an African-American landlord who hears Arleen's story and how she and her sons, Jori and Jafaris, were kicked out of their apartment without reason. She accepts them into her apartment. We learn that she used to be a teacher but moved into the real estate business when she saw that she could earn good money that way. She takes care of her people and her teacher's affection applies to her tenants as well.
Tobin and Lenny
The novel explains that the apartment fiasco is actually a systemic issue having to do with over-population. When the landlords across the country were forced to pick between tenants, they were able to raise their costs, and to make room, they broke leases, evicting (typically African-American) families without cause. After this explanation, we meet Tobin and Lenny, property owners who offer room and board to poor people in a mobile home park called College Mobile Home Park. The government is doing everything they can to shut down the business, which will lead to even more evictions.
