Posted on October 20, 2005

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Generations 'Trapped' in Extreme Poverty, Study Finds

Decades of poor planning choices have concentrated public housing at the core of cities around the United States, leaving tenants unable to access jobs that have moved to the suburbs and deepening the divide between haves and have-nots, a new study from the Brookings Institution finds.

Katrina's Window: Confronting Concentrated Poverty Across America focuses on areas in which 40 percent of residents live below the poverty line in disadvantaged neighborhoods where crime and a lack of decent housing, stable job opportunities, and supportive schools have eroded the quality of life. The report found that Fresno, California, has the highest concentration of residents living in extremely poor communities, with New Orleans placing second. "It's not that people who live in impoverished areas don't want to work, or don't want access to better lives, or don't want their children to go to good schools," said Tate Hill, business development coordinator for the Fresno West Coalition for Economic Development, "they just can't access [them]."

Alan Berube, the study's primary author, noted that high-density poverty tends to ensnare successive generations in places where adults are poorly educated and children lack the financial resources, role models, and academic footing that could help them get into college. "For a significant number of families in distressed inner-city neighborhoods, the first step has to be removing the barriers associated with their living environment," said Berube.

To read or download the complete report (13 pages, PDF), visit: http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/
20051012_Concentratedpoverty.pdf.

Barbassa, Juliana. “Many of Nation's Poor Trapped in Pockets of Concentrated Poverty.” Associated Press 10/12/05.

“Katrina's Window: Confronting Concentrated Poverty Across America.” Brookings Institution Executive Summary 10/01/05.

Primary Subject: Civil Society
Secondary Subject(s): Hurricane Relief
Location(s): United States

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