A Rental Named Desire

The beginning of the end of Desi Grimes' life in a New Orleans subdivision started with running the washing machine one night. The secretary and mother of four awoke in the morning to find water pooling in the den, collecting higher at the front of the house, where the floor pitched toward the lawn. Desi owned the washing machine, but she rented, with the aid of a housing voucher, the beige-brick home with green shutters and a tall magnolia tree anchored to a corner lot on the West Bank of New O...