Posted on 05/18/2003 1:21:40 PM PDT by El Conservador
WASHINGTON - The number of people living in high poverty neighborhoods declined during the 1990s as the economic boom lifted incomes, studies by two liberal-leaning think tanks found.
At decade's end, about 8 million people were in neighborhoods in which at least 40 percent of the residents lived in poverty, according to the Brookings Institution. That was 24 percent less than in 1990.
People found better-paying jobs or those with higher incomes moved into the neighborhoods and reduced the poverty level, rolling back increases from the previous two decades.
"This is a stunning reversal," Bruce Katz, head of the Center for Urban and Metropolitan Policy at Brookings, said of the studies being released Sunday.
"It really shows that with a good economy and the right set of policies, we can get at some of these problems."
But researchers warned the economy has worsened in recent years so the gains may have been largely erased in many neighborhoods.
"My real concern is where we are now," said Robert Lang, a demographer with the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech University in Alexandria, Va. "My guess is the last three years, we've turned more in the direction of the bad old 1980s."
The second study, by the Urban Institute, offered conclusions similar to Brookings'.
The institute determined that 12 percent of the poor in metropolitan areas lived in a neighborhood with at least 40 percent poverty, down from 17 percent in 1990.
The portion of people in neighborhoods with 30 percent to 40 percent poverty stayed the same, but there were increases in other categories. For instance, the share of the poor living in neighborhoods with poverty rates between 20 percent and 30 percent rose from 18 percent to 21 percent.
Both studies draw on already released 2000 census data. It found that the percentage of the U.S. population living in all degrees of poverty decreased from 13.1 percent, or 31.7 million people in 1989, to 12.4 percent, or 33.9 million people in 1999.
The number of people increased even though the percentage fell because the nation added so many people during the decade.
The poverty threshold differs by the size of a family and is adjusted each year for inflation. According to the Census Bureau (news - web sites), the threshold for a family of three in 2000 was about $13,738.
The population in high poverty neighborhoods declined by 21 percent in central cities and 47 percent in rural areas, while dipping 4 percent in suburbs, according to Brookings. That may be a reflection of a decline of the older suburbs closest to downtowns as development continues to sprout farther from cities, Katz said.
The 1996 welfare overhaul, which forced more public assistance recipients to find jobs, and federal programs that demolished or renovated run-down neighborhoods may have contributed to the reduction in the number of people in high poverty areas, analysts said.
There were variations by geography, race and ethnic group. Blacks decreased their representation in high poverty neighborhoods from 47 percent to 39 percent, though they remain the largest racial group in such settings.
The percentage of Hispanics and Asians in these neighborhoods increased as recent immigrants sought cheap housing. That may be a reason for the population increase in high poverty neighborhoods in Los Angeles and other communities in California and Texas.
Detroit saw the most people move out of such neighborhoods — 313,000.
That may be in part due to efforts such as those organized by John O'Brien, executive director of Northwest Detroit Neighborhood Redevelopment Inc., which fixes up abandoned homes and lots in the city.
"These places went from very bad off, to not as bad," O'Brien said. "It's clear that we haven't totally turned the corner, but it's a start."
The institute study found small improvements in other socioeconomic categories in the poorest neighborhoods. For instance, the share of people over age 25 without a high school degree dropped from 48 percent to 43 percent.
And the percentage of households receiving public assistance declined from 24 percent to 12 percent.
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