FOCUS AREAS
UNDERPRIVILEDGED
The ongoing economic crisis has negatively affected the livelihoods of millions of Americans. Residents of impoverished neighborhoods or communities are at increased risk for mental illness, chronic disease, higher mortality, and lower life expectancy. U.S. Census Bureau 2010 data shows the following:
U.S. poverty rate
- 2008
- 2009
- 2010
$22,314
In 2010, the poverty threshold, or poverty line, was $22,314 for a family of four.
15%
Over 15 percent of the population fell below this threshold in 2010.
Percentage of people
in deep poverty
- 13.5% Black
- 5.8% Asian
- 10.9% Hispanic
- 4.3% White
Measures of Economic Development in Vulnerable Communities State economic development efforts for vulnerable communities may need a complementary set of measures to those above, but at the neighborhood level. The Annie E. Casey Foundation has devised long-term community investment benchmarks that may be useful, including the following:
-
Increase in services provided by formal financial institutions and depository financial institutions
-
Increase in the number of employers who look to the neighborhood for employee recruitment
-
Increase in private investments in the neighborhood
-
Increase of public resources committed to the neighborhood for infrastructure. Interim milestones include:
- • Completion of a neighborhood economic development strategic plan
- • Start-up or capacity building of a community development corporation or business association
- • Start-up of neighborhood businesses
-
The goals of development efforts in vulnerable communities likely go beyond narrow goal of economic development and, therefore, would involve additional measures of results, which could include:
- • Increase in the number of jobs with health insurance and retirement benefits
- • Increase in the number of jobs with wage rates higher than the legal minimum wage
Living on 99 cents a day means you have limited access to information—newspapers, television, and books all cost money—and so you often just don’t know certain facts that the rest of the world takes as given, for example, that vaccines can stop your child from getting measles. It means living in a world whose institutions are not built for someone like you. Most of the poor do not have a salary, let alone a retirement plan that deducts automatically from it. It means making decisions about things that come with a lot of small print when you cannot even properly read the large print. What does someone who cannot read make of a health insurance product that doesn’t cover a lot of unpronounceable diseases? It means going to vote when your entire experience of the political system is a lot of promises, not delivered; and not having anywhere safe to keep your money, because what the bank manager can make from your little savings won’t cover his cost of handling it.