Poverty Concentration High Among Latinos

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According to a recently published report from The Century Foundation, poverty concentration has resurfaced in the United States and Latinos have become disproportionately affected.

Small urban cities, such as Syracuse, New York, have seen that 62% of their Latino population now lives in poverty. The report found that cities such as Syracuse have grown 12.6% since 2000, while large metropolitan areas have grown by less than 2%.

The report found that there is a widespread growth of poverty concentration nationwide. This affects a wide swath of societal ills such as urban violence, police-community tension, and racism.

One of the more intriguing findings of the report was that the Great Recession was not directly responsible for this increase in poverty numbers, except for Latinos. There was a 90% increase of immigrant residents in high-poverty areas.

Prior to the economic recession, 1-in-6 Hispanics were found to be living in extreme poverty. Poor Latinos twice more likely than poor whites to live in a neighborhood with a poverty rate of 40% or more. Also, Latinos living in high-poverty neighborhoods overall increased from 2.2 to 4.3 million.

White poor children were found to be less likely than Latino poor children to live in high-poverty neighborhoods.

Of the nation’s 100 largest areas, the city of Syracuse found to have the largest poverty concentration of Latinos, followed by Detroit, Rochester, Milwaukee, Fresno, Buffalo, and Cleveland. Philadelphia and McAllen saw a decline.