The Growing Problem of Concentrated Poverty of NC

A growing number of North Carolinians are living in concentrated poverty neighborhoods. If your neighborhood in particular hasn’t been affected, you may wonder why this is important. The North Carolina Justice Center released a report this month, “Barriers to Opportunity: The Growing Problem of Concentrated Poverty in North Carolina’s Neighborhoods” to detail this issue and explain why it matters.

Using data from the United States Census Bureau, the NC Justice Center found that as of 2006 to 2010, there were 100 areas of concentrated poverty in North Carolina- nearly triple the number from 2000. Data also shows that 143,445 poor residents live in these extremely poor areas, which is 3.5 times the number in 2000.

Areas of concentrated poverty are defined as census tracts with poverty rates of 40% or more, using the federal poverty level.

Patterns of concentrated poverty have persisted for decades because of factors such as rapid suburbanization, deindustrialization, commercial disinvestment, and racial discrimination in housing markets. Government policies, such as home ownership subsidies, public housing location decisions, interstate and highway subsidies, and deterioration in local services, have also contributed to concentrated poverty.

Being poor and residing in a poor neighborhood is known as a “double burden” because it magnifies and perpetuates the problems that poor people face. Research shows that residential segregation of people who are poor leads to negative neighborhood effects, which are community influences on individual socioeconomic outcomes. Neighborhood effects include low- quality educational opportunities, weaker employment networks, and higher rates of crime.

Data also shows that in 2006- 2010, 10.4 percent of the state’s impoverished children lived in concentrated poverty neighborhoods. This is particularly alarming for a number of reasons. Research shows that regardless of family income, children raised in these neighborhoods have less access to good quality schools, early education programs, and social networks that foster healthy development. They are also at higher risk of poor outcomes, including higher stress levels, higher dropout rates, and more emotional problems.

Opportunity structure is deeply connected to the neighborhood. As a result, concentrated poverty neighborhoods have great implications for the families that live there and particularly for the children that grow up there.

For this very reason, New Century IDA is proud that its graduates can purchase a home any where in Forsyth County. By not limiting its clients to certain neighborhoods, the IDA program gives people more options and does not contribute to creating poverty concentrated neighborhoods. However, there is still much work to be done and this is an issue that we should all be aware of.