Concentration of Poverty and Metropolitan Development

1
Concentration of Poverty and Metropolitan
Development

• Paul A. Jargowsky
• Associate Professor,
• University of Texas at Dallas
• July 12, 2006

2
Outline

• The Spatial Dimension of Poverty
• Concentration of Poverty
• Proportion of the poor living in high-poverty
  ghettos and barrios
• Trends over time
• Connection to larger metropolitan development
  patterns
• Consequences Policy Implications

3
Dimensions of Poverty

• First and foremost poverty is about money
• Poverty Line compares family income to amount
  needed to buy necessities
• Experience of poverty includes more than lack of
  money
• Dilapidated housing, environmental threats
• Crime Gangs
• Failing schools, poor public services
• These are characteristics of neighborhoods

4
Concentrated Poverty

• Some poor persons, certainly not all, live in
  very high-poverty neighborhoods (ghettos,
  barrios, slums)
• The extreme poverty of the these places
  exacerbates the problems of children in poor
  families
• Few positive role models, many negative role
  models
• Peer effects a significant determinant of
  academic achievement (Zimmer and Toma 2000)

5
The Advance and Retreat of Detroits High-Poverty
Ghetto

• The animation on the following page shows the
  high-poverty zone in Detroit from 1970 to 2000.
• Red tones indicate high-poverty areas census
  tracts with poverty rates above 40 percent.
• Green tones are low or moderate poverty areas.
• After decades of increases, Detroit had a
  dramatic reduction in the size and population of
  the high poverty area.

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Poverty Level Detroit Neighborhoods, 1970-2000
7
Poverty Level Detroit Neighborhoods, 1970-2000
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Poverty Level Detroit Neighborhoods, 1970-2000
9
Poverty Level Detroit Neighborhoods, 1970-2000
10
Percentage Change in Population of High-Poverty
Neighborhoods by State, 1990-2000
Change, 1990-2000
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(No Transcript)
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Causal Factors

• Strong economy clearly played a role in
  reductions between 1990 and 2000
• Policy changes (welfare reform, EITC,
  decentralized forms of housing assistance)
• However, 2000 economy much stronger than 1970
• Segregation by race segregates poverty, but
  segregation by race has been declining
• There must be something else.

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Population Changes, 1970-1990 The MSA Hollows Out
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The Process Continues, 1990-2000
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Metropolitan Areas with Central City Population
Declines, 1990-2000

• Of the 100 Largest
• Metropolitan Areas
• 30 had central city declines (for example, those
  to the left)
• 51 more had central city growth less than
  suburban growth

16
Change in Poverty Rates, 1990-2000Detroit MSA
The central city did better, but the inner-ring
suburbs did not.
17
St. Louis
Change in Poverty Rates
1970-1990
1990-2000
18
Cleveland
Change in Poverty Rates
1970-1990
1990-2000
19
Dallas
Change in Poverty Rates
1970-1990
1990-2000
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Percentage of Blacks and Poor Persons, 2000, in
Suburbs by Growth Rate, 1990-2000
Population Change (), Black and
1990-2000 Black Poor Poor Decline 22.4
14.2 6.1 0 to 25 12.1 11.9 2.8 25 to 50
8.5 9.7 1.5 50 to 100 9.9
7.8 1.3 100 or more 5.3 6.8 0.6 (Includes
all suburban places in metropolitan areas.)
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Institutional Context of US Suburban Development

• In US, major metropolitan areas have extensive
  political fragmentation
• Central cities are surrounded by politically
  independent suburbs
• Federal and state government play only a
  secondary role in development decisions
• Central cities are relatively poor and have
  greater minority populations
• Suburbs are rich and mostly white

22
Political Fragmentation, Dallas Metropolitan Area

• Dallas central city (center, in red) is
  surrounded by 154 suburbs, containing
• 66 of total
• 79 of whites
• 42 of blacks

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Median Year of Housing Construction Dallas
Census Tracts, 1990
The city is built in concentric rings beyond the
suburbs, housing is older again.
24
Median Year of Housing Construction Dallas
Census Tracts, 2000
Rapid development in outer suburbs, and exurban
areas become newer.
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Exurban Development
The rate of rural land conversion is far more
rapid than population growth.
Photo Wisconsin Alliance of Cities
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Economically Exclusive Developments Over Large,
Peripheral Areas
Photo credits Left Sierra Club Right North
Texas Council of Governments
27
Median House Value, 2000
The new suburban housing in North Dallas is
homogenous and upper-income.
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Summary

• Many independent local governments
• Competition to be the most desirable suburb
• Very rapid growth, exceeding overall population
  of growth of the region
• New suburbs growing at the expense of older
  suburbs and central cities
• The poor and minorities left behind in the
  central cities

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Policy Implications

• Rapid, laissez faire metropolitan growth can
  facilitate segregation and concentration of
  poverty, and limit access to opportunity.
• Coordination necessary to eliminate destructive
  forms of competition among jurisdictions (rules
  of the game).
• Spatial access to opportunity is the great
  emerging social challenge of the 21st Century.

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Policies

• HOPE VI, Section 8, decentralized forms of
  housing assistance
• Low Income Housing Tax Credit program should not
  reinforce existing poverty patterns
• Combined waiting lists and target areas
• Fewer single-income developments, no
  single-income communities (inclusionary zoning,
  fair share approaches)
• Lending institutions are the key, because they
  have a stake in the success of the metropolitan
  area as a whole

31
Moving in the Right Direction mixed income
developments, sustainable communities
George L. Vaughn High Rises, 1995
Murphy Park, Today
Source Alan Berube, Brookings Institution
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Follow up

• Email Paul.Jargowsky_at_utdallas.edu or
  jargo_at_utdallas.edu
• Research papers http//www.utdallas.edu/jargo
• Interactive Poverty Mapping Web Site
  http//www.urbanpoverty.net