Category: News

“Concentration of Poverty in the New Millennium” 

Paul A. Jargowsky, Ph.D.

Professor of Public Policy, 
Rutgers University-Camden

 

Wednesday, November 6, 2013 – 12:15pm

Campus Center–Executive Private Dining Room

 

The problems of poverty are exacerbated when poor people live in dysfunctional high-poverty neighborhoods, where they are exposed to high levels of crime and violence and have limited access to educational and economic opportunities.  Growing up in such neighborhoods can affect children’s health and educational achievement.  This paper combines data from several sources to document the recent trends in concentrated poverty and the implications of those trends for social and housing policy.  Since 2000, the spatial concentration of poverty has surged, particularly since the housing crisis and recession began in 2008.  In particular, concentrated poverty has returned to and surpassed the peak levels of 1990, but with important differences in the distribution and composition of high-poverty neighborhoods.  For example, concentration of poverty has grown fastest among non-Hispanic whites.  High-poverty neighborhoods are substantially less likely to be composed of a single racial or ethnic group.   No longer confined to the central cities of major metropolitan areas, concentration of poverty has increased faster in smaller metropolitan areas.  Another change is that high-poverty census tracts are no longer found in one or two contiguous clusters, but are more widely scattered around metropolitan areas, including inner-ring suburban areas.  Concentration of poverty, therefore, remains an important social problem that is now affecting more groups in more diverse locations in the metropolitan landscape.

 

Affiliated CURE scholar Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn 

 is currently attending the Erasmus Happiness Economics  Research Organisation’s (EHRO) congress on the  advances in happiness economics held at the Erasmus  University Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

“Lessons from Mixed Housing Programs: Implications for Obama’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative”

Hilary Silver, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology and Urban Studies and Professor of Public Policy, 
Brown University

 

 

Friday, October 25, 2013 – 12:15pm

Campus Center–Executive Private Dining Room

Lunch will be provided

Hilary Silver is Professor of Sociology and Urban Studies and Professor of Public Policy at Brown University, and Editor of  the journal, City & Community.  Her research focuses on urban poverty, social exclusion, and discrimination, and analyzes social, employment, and housing policies in the US and Europe.  She is currently editing a book, Comparing Cities (Routledge), on internationally comparative urban studies.  Her 2009 film, Southside: The Fall and Rise of an Inner-City Neighborhood, will be followed by Last Resorts, currently in production, on long-term trajectories of the chronically homeless.  Silver is also a Commissioner of the Providence Housing Authority.  Her talk is based on “Mixing Policies: Expectations and Achievements” in Cityscape (2013) and “Obama’s Urban Policy” in City & Community (2010).

Dr. Jargowsky accepted the invitation to serve a 3-year term on the editorial board of the prestigious peer-reviewed academic journal Housing Policy Debate.  The journal provides a venue for original research relating to U.S. housing policy. Subjects include affordable housing policy, fair housing policy, land use regulations influencing housing affordability, metropolitan development trends, and linkages among housing policy and energy, environmental, and transportation policy.

Housing Policy Debate is published quarterly. Most issues feature a Forum section and an Articles section. The Forum, which highlights a current debate, features a central article and responding comments that represent a range of perspectives. All articles in the Forum and Articles sections undergo a double-blind peer review process. On a recurring basis, Housing Policy Debate also features an Outlook section where the editors, occasionally with expert guest writers, comment on emerging areas of housing and metropolitan research or current events.

Ph.D. Student Earns Eagleton Governor’s Executive Fellowship

Returning to Tacony, his old neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia, Spencer Clayton has quickly grown to relish his new role. As an intern for Councilman Bobby Henon, who represents the Sixth District, he routinely provides citizens – including longtime neighbors and friends – with the latest news and information regarding government-related programs and services. That is, when he isn’t listening to their questions or concerns.

“Sometimes it’s just helping them with the little things, such as filling out forms,” says Clayton, a Rutgers–Camden Ph.D. student in public affairs. “But more than that, I can help make sure that the residents’ voices are being heard. It has always been my plan to come back to this neighborhood and to help make a difference.”  Link to full article