The Poor Tend to Live Outside of Impoverished Inner-City Neighborhoods

Abstract

Chapter 3 confronts the myth that most of the poor live in impoverished inner-city neighborhoods. In reality, only approximately 10 to 15 percent of America’s poor people reside in high-poverty neighborhoods. Furthermore, the numbers of poor people in suburban areas now outnumber those in central-city areas. Finally, high levels of poverty can be found in rural America, including Appalachia, the Mississippi delta, the Texas–Mexico border, the Southwest and Northern Plains, and the central corridor of California. Thus, the myth that poverty is confined to a particular group of Americans, in very specific locations, is corrosive because it encourages the belief that poverty is an issue of “them” rather than “us.” Poverty strikes a wide swath of the population, and it touches Americans in cities, suburbs, and rural communities.