Suburban Poverty Research Articles

Gentrification and the suburbanization of poverty: evidence from a highly regulated housing system

ABSTRACT There is growing evidence of a suburbanization of poverty in the context of accelerating gentrification, particularly in liberal housing systems. To what extent are similar processes occurring in highly regulated housing systems that undergo gentrification? To scrutinize this, we use a novel dataset covering all 997,497 residential relocations differentiated by household income and household type in the period between 2011 and 2018 for the case of Vienna, Austria. Drawing on GIS mapping and descriptive statistics, we find limited evidence of a systematic relocation of low-income households from gentrifying central areas or even to the suburbs, yet significantly higher mobility rates among this group. We argue, based on policy analysis and multivariate statistics, that this is a product of Vienna’s tenure segmented housing system. While the gentrifying private rental sector in the urban core is characterized by high levels of precarity, regularly pushing low-income residents to move house, entry barriers to other market segments “trap” many of them in this sector under insecure conditions. Our results raise broader questions about the context in the debate around gentrification and suburbanizing poverty and call for greater attention to detrimental impacts of gentrification on housing and life course trajectories of low-income residents without pronounced spatial displacement.

The first mile towards access equity: Is on-demand microtransit a valuable addition to the transportation mix in suburban communities?

As cities grow, the benefits of living in them are increasingly unequally distributed. USA cities, in particular, have experienced rapid suburbanization of poverty and decreased levels of access to jobs for transit-dependent and vulnerable communities. The public transit challenges in suburbs call for innovative forms of transit to turn the tide on urban inequality. On-demand microtransit, a novel type of shared mobility provides efficient, convenient and affordable transportation. Its potential for redressing inequity had yet to be investigated fully in a suburban setting. We presented a case study from the suburbs of Minneapolis-St. Paul in Minnesota, USA. We combined unique datasets of microtransit ridership from two public transit agencies, transit surveys, land use data, and expert interviews, to conduct spatial analysis, accessibility analysis, and equity impact assessments for these suburbs. We found that microtransit enables public transit agencies to reach a larger number of vulnerable riders than fixed-route transit, particularly for commuting and trips to/from commercial areas. Microtransit also provided a cheaper alternative to ride-hailing and a faster alternative to public transit and walking, without cannibalizing ridership from fixed-rout transit alternatives. Finally, microtransit redressed transportation inequities by alleviating access inequality, reaching vulnerable rider groups effectively, and creating travel opportunities that are less spatially concentrated than those provided by traditional, fixed-route public transit. This study provided a framework for further investigations into the impact of microtransit, including in urban core or rural settings, and highlighted the impact of microtransit in reducing access inequity in a suburban environment.

New measurement approaches to identifying spatial concentrations of poor and low-income households in German city regions

The question of whether 21st-century urbanization dynamics are leading to a suburbanization of poverty in Western city regions has been on the agenda of spatial researchers and housing policymakers for over a decade now. Persistent reurbanization trends are putting increased pressure on inner-city housing markets, resulting in affordability problems for low-income households. Evidence from the US and the UK shows that financing mechanisms in the real estate sector were severely disrupted in the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2009 and subsequent years, with many households losing their homes and being forced to move. Though social security systems and social housing policies generally have a moderating effect, they vary widely across Western countries. Against this background, this paper presents three spatial observation methods tailored to the spatial analysis of poverty concentrations in Germany. The methods are based on three popular conceptualizations of poverty: material poverty, relative poverty, and the concept of neighbourhood deprivation. The main novelty presented in this paper is a cold-spot analysis of purchasing power in 33 city regions using interactive map visualizations and complemented by socioeconomic indicators. Expert feedback verifies the validity of the approach which addresses a ‘blind spot’ in assessing poverty in Germany, where many low-income households are increasingly exposed to risks of poverty despite not qualifying for social benefits.

Suburbanization of poverty? Analysis of attitudes of social assistance beneficiaries in rural areas of the Masovian Voivodeship

Suburbanization of poverty? Analysis of attitudes of social assistance beneficiaries in rural areas of the Masovian Voivodeship

Housing and welfare reform, and the suburbanization of poverty in UK cities 2011–20

The suburbanization of poverty has been noted in many advanced industrial nations including the UK. Theory focuses on economic and labour market restructuring combined with processes of market- and/or state-led housing change. This paper examines the contributions of housing and welfare reforms. In the UK, housing policy has driven low-income households increasingly to find accommodation in the private rental sector at the same time that welfare reforms have constrained the rents these households can afford. This paper traces the spatial consequence of these reforms, drawing on a novel combination of Government data and a database of private rental adverts. Up to 2011, the shift from social to private renting for low-income households was relatively neutral in its impacts on suburbanization. Since then, low-income households in private renting have been increasingly pushed to less central locations as rents in more central areas have risen faster. The role played by housing and welfare policy in the suburbanization of poverty needs wider consideration.

Evaluation of accessibility and equity to hospitals by public transport: evidence from six largest cities of Ohio

IntroductionIn the United States, health care has long been viewed as a ‘right,’ and residents of the state of Ohio are no exception. The Ohio Department of Health ensures that this right exists for all residents of Ohio. Socio-spatial characteristics, however, can have an impact on access to health care, particularly among vulnerable groups. This article seeks to measure the spatial accessibility to healthcare services by public transport in the six largest cities of Ohio based on population and to compare the accessibility of healthcare to vulnerable demographic groups. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to analyze the accessibility and equity of hospitals by public transit across different cities in Ohio, allowing the identification of common patterns, difficulties, and knowledge gaps.MethodologyUsing a two-step floating catchment area technique, the spatial accessibility to general medical and surgical hospitals through public transportation was estimated, considering both service-to-population ratios and travel time to these health services. The average accessibility of all census tracts and the average accessibility of the 20% of most susceptible census tracts were determined for each city. Using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient between accessibility and vulnerability, an indicator was then devised to evaluate vertical equity.FindingsWithin cities (except Cleveland), people of vulnerable census tracts have less access to hospitals via public transportation. These cities (Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, Akron, and Dayton) fail in terms of vertical equity and average accessibility. According to this, vulnerable census tracts in these cities have the lowest accessibility levels.ConclusionThis study emphasizes the issues connected with the suburbanization of poverty in Ohio’s large cities and the need to provide adequate public transportation to reach hospitals on the periphery. In addition, this study shed light on the need for additional empirical research to inform the implementation of guidelines for healthcare accessibility in Ohio. Researchers, planners, and policymakers who want to make healthcare more accessible for everyone should take note of the findings in this study.

Are low-income residents disproportionately moving away from transit?

Low-income residents are often reliant on public transit for daily travel. In North American cities, they have also historically concentrated in centrally located neighbourhoods with relatively higher levels of transit accessibility. However, during the late 20th and early 21st century, regions have witnessed trends of inner-city neighbourhood change and gentrification and the suburbanization of poverty, raising concerns that low-income residents are disproportionately moving away from relied upon transit service. In this paper, we investigate what occurs when low-income residents change dwellings within a region: do they experience a reduction in their levels of transit accessibility, how does this compare to higher-income movers, and how has this changed over time? We examine this by linking historical transit accessibility measures to annual individual-level panel data representing 20% of tax filers in Toronto, Canada from 1988 to 2018. We then analyze changes in transit accessibility for over 2 million intra-urban movers during this time period via descriptive statistics and regression models to answer whether there are significant differences in individual changes in transit accessibility by income level. We find that low-income residents do, on average, experience reductions in their levels of transit accessibility when moving within the region, suggesting a growth in people at risk of transport poverty. Nevertheless, they do not undergo as great of a reduction in transit accessibility as higher-income movers, although this gap in experienced changes in transit accessibility between higher- and low-income movers is converging over time.

The Differences in Factors that Influence Poverty in Urban, Suburban, and Rural Areas

The study of poverty in Indonesia that specifically takes a review or category of suburban area has not been conducted widely. In fact, when referring to the dimensions that correlate with poverty, various problems related to access to economic resources, social facilities and services, public infrastructure, geographical constraints, and land tenure are actually more common in suburban areas than in the city center. The aims of this study are 1) to determine the spatial zoning in Kendal Regency based on the categories of urban, suburban, and rural areas. 2) identify the variables that affect suburban poverty in Kendal Regency. This study took place in Kendal Regency, which is one of the districts directly adjacent to Semarang City, the capital city of Central Java Province, Indonesia. The unit of analysis in this study is the village, totaling 286 villages. The technique used is K-Means Clustering and linear regression (OLS). The results of the analysis show that the distribution of poverty in Kendal Regency is clustered. In addition, suburban poverty has a different character than poverty in urban and rural areas.

The Suburbanization of Eviction: Increasing Displacement and Inequality Within American Suburbs

The suburbanization of poverty in the United States coincided with surging housing costs and growing rent burdens. Although much of the existing literature on eviction focuses on housing insecurity and displacement in cities, there is good reason to suspect that it has become an equally common phenomenon in the suburbs. This study evaluates changes in the frequency of urban and suburban evictions over time across seventy-four large metropolitan areas. Multilevel models show that the number of suburban evictions has steadily risen over time, even as urban evictions have been stable. The cases of Cleveland, Seattle, and Tampa demonstrate that the increase in suburban evictions is concentrated in pockets of the suburbs. Additional analyses reveal large geographic and racial inequalities in suburban displacement.

Resisting Amnesia: Renewing and Expanding the Study of Suburban Inequality

Suburban inequality is the focus of this double issue of <i>RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences</i>. This introduction addresses the limited related scholarship, describes how inequality unfolds differently in suburban communities than in urban and rural communities, and draws attention to urgent issues related to stratification between and within suburban communities. We argue that inattention to the study of suburban space, methodological and disciplinary silos, and the changing nature of the suburbs have left large holes in our understanding of how inequality operates. This critical review covers areas such as measurement, forgotten suburban scholarship, demographic change, suburban poverty, social supports, race, immigration, education, politics, policing, and future directions for suburban studies. In our call for resisting amnesia, we also draw attention to forgotten suburban histories and studies of a diverse range of suburban communities.

Resisting Amnesia: Renewing and Expanding the Study of Suburban Inequality

Suburban inequality is the focus of this double issue of <i>RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences</i>. This introduction addresses the limited related scholarship, describes how inequality unfolds differently in suburban communities than in urban and rural communities, and draws attention to urgent issues related to stratification between and within suburban communities. We argue that inattention to the study of suburban space, methodological and disciplinary silos, and the changing nature of the suburbs have left large holes in our understanding of how inequality operates. This critical review covers areas such as measurement, forgotten suburban scholarship, demographic change, suburban poverty, social supports, race, immigration, education, politics, policing, and future directions for suburban studies. In our call for resisting amnesia, we also draw attention to forgotten suburban histories and studies of a diverse range of suburban communities.

Defining ‘metropolitan’ poverty: Isolation gradients in major US urban areas

As suburban poverty has become more prevalent in recent years, low-income neighbourhoods have emerged outside of many central cities. In many regions, however, there remains a stark divide between the core city and outlying areas. Measuring poverty concentrations, therefore, depends on the choice of geographic scale. Widespread urban poverty results in low measures of poverty concentration inside core cities, and whether this increases or decreases once suburbs are considered depends on specific regional characteristics. This study calculates ‘isolation gradients’ for the population in poverty in the 50 largest US Metropolitan areas (MSAs), extending from the core city to beyond the MSA level. A variety of patterns emerge, including sharp increases in isolation scores outside the city (as in Detroit) as well as decreases (for Atlanta). An econometric analysis of the ratio of MSA-level to core-city isolation scores finds that, controlling for land area and core-city poverty rates, much of the variance is explained by per-capita income and differences in racial segregation. A comparison of gradients in 2000 and 2015–2019 for a subset of cities shows additional patterns of suburban and urban convergence and divergence.

Beyond Urban Displacement: Suburban Poverty and Eviction

Eviction has been studied almost exclusively as an urban phenomenon. The growing suburbanization of poverty in the United States, however, provides new cause to analyze the prevalence and correlates of displacement beyond cities. This study analyzes urban-suburban disparities in eviction rates across 71 large metropolitan areas. We show that eviction is a common experience in suburbs as well as cities. Urban eviction rates exceed suburban rates in most cases, but one in six metropolitan areas experienced higher eviction rates in the suburbs. Multilevel models show that key correlates of eviction—especially poverty and median rent—influence eviction patterns differently in urban and suburban contexts. We explore variations in urban-suburban disparities through case studies of Milwaukee, Seattle, and Miami. Metropolitan areas with larger shifts toward suburban poverty, more expensive urban rental markets, and more segregated suburbs experience more suburban evictions.

Modal accessibility disparities and transport poverty in the Oslo region

Sufficient accessibility to opportunities, with different transport modes, is an important factor in order to avoid transport-related social exclusion and transport poverty. This paper investigates the social and geographical disparities in accessibility and time competitiveness of public transport in the Oslo region. Both place-based access to employment opportunities and the working population’s individual-specific commutes are measured. The study combines registry data with detailed accessibility metrics and uses descriptive maps and spatial regression models to study transport poverty. The results show that less affluent neighbourhoods suffer from low accessibility and poor time competitiveness of public transport, which is partly related to the suburbanization of poverty. This suggests that the transition to low emission mobility, with restrictions on car use, may be especially burdensome in less affluent neighbourhoods. The findings can help policy makers in securing an equitable transition from car to more sustainable transport modes.

Overlooked Suburbs: The Changing Metropolitan Geography of Poverty in the Western United States

This report examines trends between 1990 and 2014—18 in the location of populations experiencing poverty, which we define as those with incomes below the federal poverty line, within metropolitan regions in the United States, with a particular focus on the western United States. We explore how growing suburban poverty is distributed across jurisdictional boundaries that shape governance outcomes, including incorporated and unincorporated suburbs. The size of a suburb and its incorporation status affect its position within local-regional political structures, and smaller suburbs may be overlooked by public, private, and nonprofit organizations in the community development field. Size and incorporation status also affect a suburb’s access to certain federal funds, including the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, a key source of funding for local antipoverty programs. Variation in the distribution of populations experiencing poverty across census regions and metropolitan areas has implications for public and philanthropic spending on social services for low- and moderate-income populations. In this report, we first discuss average trends in the distribution of poverty across urban and suburban jurisdictions in five census regions. For comparison, we divide metropolitan areas into five geographies—the largest city in a metro area, other principal cities, large suburban cities, small suburban cities, and unincorporated areas. Next, we profile 14 metropolitan areas in the western United States through “data snapshots” showing changes in poverty rates and racial and ethnic demographics. We conclude by discussing the implications of these trends for community development practitioners seeking to promote economic participation and financial stability among low- and moderate-income communities and communities of color.

Overlooked Suburbs: The Changing Metropolitan Geography of Poverty in the Western United States

This report examines trends between 1990 and 2014—18 in the location of populations experiencing poverty, which we define as those with incomes below the federal poverty line, within metropolitan regions in the United States, with a particular focus on the western United States. We explore how growing suburban poverty is distributed across jurisdictional boundaries that shape governance outcomes, including incorporated and unincorporated suburbs. The size of a suburb and its incorporation status affect its position within local-regional political structures, and smaller suburbs may be overlooked by public, private, and nonprofit organizations in the community development field. Size and incorporation status also affect a suburb’s access to certain federal funds, including the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, a key source of funding for local antipoverty programs. Variation in the distribution of populations experiencing poverty across census regions and metropolitan areas has implications for public and philanthropic spending on social services for low- and moderate-income populations. In this report, we first discuss average trends in the distribution of poverty across urban and suburban jurisdictions in five census regions. For comparison, we divide metropolitan areas into five geographies—the largest city in a metro area, other principal cities, large suburban cities, small suburban cities, and unincorporated areas. Next, we profile 14 metropolitan areas in the western United States through “data snapshots” showing changes in poverty rates and racial and ethnic demographics. We conclude by discussing the implications of these trends for community development practitioners seeking to promote economic participation and financial stability among low- and moderate-income communities and communities of color.

The impact of regional and local population trends on suburban poverty and ethnoracial composition change: A shift‐share analysis of the Chicago metropolitan area in the 2000s

AbstractDemographic and socioeconomic composition changes in neighbourhoods are often the result of local factors (e.g., gentrification or disinvestment) that promote population growth of certain ethnoracial and socioeconomic groups over others, and regional demographic and economic trends that affect metropolitan areas as a whole. This exploratory analysis isolates the portion of poverty and ethnoracial composition change in suburbs that is attributable to regional trends from local factors. The analysis is conducted for the Chicago–Joliet–Naperville metropolitan area during the 2000s. The results show that processes such as suburban poverty and growing minority populations are to a large extent attributable to the shrinking nonpoor White population. This change in the number of nonpoor Whites in suburbs seems to be related to regional population trends, whereas much of the population change of nonpoor and poor minorities is linked to local neighbourhood conditions.

The suburbanization of poverty and minority populations in the 2000s: Two parallel or interrelated processes?

ABSTRACT Previous research on suburban poverty has found evidence that the population growth of minorities in suburbs is associated with higher poverty rates. However, it has remained unclear whether the changing poverty rates result from a shifting population composition in suburbs, rising poverty rates among one or more groups, or a combination of these processes. Here I estimate the relative strength of these processes for Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White populations in the Chicago-Joliet-Naperville metropolitan area using data from the 2000 census and 2008–2012 American Community Survey. The results show that between 67% and 92% of the poverty increase in suburbs is attributable to the increase in poverty and population growth of minorities. Most of the poverty increase is linked to the greater exposure of minorities to the economic effects of the Great Recession rather than their population growth. However, some of the poverty increase in inner-ring suburbs was linked to the population growth of poor minorities, especially Hispanics.

Poverty Suburbanization, Job Accessibility, and Employment Outcomes

The last decade of urbanization throughout many cities have seen a perceptible shift in the demand for centralized urban amenities while poverty has increasingly decentralized. Yet, the opportunity landscape of these shifting geographies of poverty and prosperity are not well understood. In this article, we examine how access to employment for low-income households has been impacted as a result of these changing geographies. Using a case study on the Charlotte metropolitan area we examine whether the suburbanization of poverty and reinvestment in the center city has reshaped the job opportunity landscape for low-wage residents. The objectives of this article are twofold. First, we calculate and map autobased accessibility from all neighborhoods in the Charlotte metropolitan area to job locations, differentiated by wage categories, in 2010 and 2017 to identify potential changes in the mismatch between low-income households and access to employment. We use a point-level employment dataset for these two years and calculate accessibility originating from census block groups. Second, we estimate the extent to which access to employment has affected employment rates and household incomes at the neighborhood level using a first-difference, spatial two-stage least squares model with instrumental variables. Our findings suggest that changes in accessibility had no significant effect on changes in neighborhood employment rates. However, we find evidence that increasing accessibility for lower-income households could have a positive effect on neighborhood median household incomes. Overall, the polycentric nature of Charlotte appears to have reduced the spatial mismatch between low-income workers and low-wage jobs.

Extension’s Potential to Respond to Suburban Food Insecurity

Between 2000 and 2013, the suburbs in the country’s largest metro areas saw their low-income population grow twice as fast as primary urban cities. In 2018, the Pew Research Center reported that poverty increased more sharply in suburbs than in urban and rural counties (Parker et al., 2018). The rise in suburban poverty coincides with an increasing prevalence of food insecurity. The social and physical environments of suburban communities pose unique food-related challenges for the suburban poor. Awareness and stigmatization of food assistance programs, lack of transportation options, access to food pantries, and limited community gardens are examples of challenges that many families face. With a growing suburban population facing poverty and food insecurity, Extension is positioned to address the complex problem of suburban food insecurity through community-engaged research and education involving the areas of family and consumer sciences, community development, agriculture and natural resources, and 4-H youth development.