August
14, 2008
Study shows intense poverty
in Rochester
Gary McLendon
Staff writer
Lue Robinson prepares for her nursing shift at Sisters of Saint Joseph of Rochester while her grandson, David Robinson, 7, has a snack. Lue Robinson, whose home is on Avenue D, has lived in Rochester for more than 26 years. (KATHARINE SIDELNIK staff photographer)
A Brookings Institution study released this week shows the U.S. economic decline from 1999 to 2005 has produced higher concentrations of poverty in Rochester and in cities across the country.
Rochester has the fourth greatest increase in the level of concentrated working poverty of the 58 cities and metropolitan areas studied and is among 10 cities with the highest rates of concentrated working poverty in the United States, the report says.
Only three other metropolitan areas had greater increases in concentrated working poor: Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, Pa.; Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Mich., and Augusta-Richmond County, Ga.
The study uses 2005 data, the most recent available, so Rochester's
poverty picture may have changed.
"After this most recent economic downturn, it is quite likely the picture
will look worse in 2010 (when there is complete data for the decade)," said
co-author Alan Berube. "We're either in a recession or on the brink of one;
and price pressures are not likely to improve the situations in the very
lowest income neighborhoods."
The Brookings Institution, based in Washington, D.C., defines itself as a "nonprofit public policy organization" that conducts independent research. Its president is Strobe Talbott, a deputy secretary of state in the Clinton administration.
The report, released Tuesday, sheds light on the working poor through a comparison of taxpayers filing earned income tax credits, or EITC, in 1999 and 2005. Grouping taxpayers by ZIP code, the study identified concentrated or high-poverty neighborhoods — those in which at least 40 percent of filers received EITC and were considered poor under federal income levels.
Earned income tax credits are a federal income tax credit designed to help low-income individuals and families. Qualified filers receive federal refunds when the EITC exceeds the amount of taxes owed.
"Reversal of Fortune: A New Look at Concentrated Poverty in the 2000s,"
shows a 21 percent concentrated working poverty rate in Rochester.
Breakdown by ZIP code
The number of city ZIP codes in which high percentages of residents live in poverty expanded from two areas to five. In 1999, high concentrations of working poor lived within ZIP codes 14605, which includes parts of Joseph and North Clinton avenues, and 14608, which includes the Lyell Avenue-Jay Street area.
In 2005, those two areas were joined by ZIP codes 14611, in the Jefferson Avenue area; 14621, which includes the Hudson Avenue area, and 14613, which includes areas around Driving Park and Dewey Avenue.
All five ZIP codes are within city limits.
According to 2000 U.S. census data, 97,609 people lived within these five
ZIP codes, 47 percent of the city's then 209,662 population. That means,
based on eight-year-old data, almost half of Rochester's residents live in
areas of concentrated poverty.
The percentages of EITC filers by ZIP code are: 62 percent (14605), 47
percent (14608), 46 percent (14611 and 14621) and 42 percent (14613).
Rochesterians say making ends meet is getting rougher.
Avenue D, between Bauman Street and Hudson Avenue, in the 14621 ZIP code, is a stretch of both neat, well-maintained and abandoned, boarded-up houses. It's a place where cars with loud stereos zoom by as 7-year-old David Robinson rides his bicycle on the sidewalk.
David's grandmother Lue Robinson, 60, a nursing assistant at Sisters of St. Joseph on French Road, is raising David in her Avenue D home of 26 years.
'You have to cut back'
Robinson, whose income is above federal poverty thresholds, said she has
utilized the EITC tax option for years.
She has refinanced her home to make repairs and for general upkeep, and said
higher food, clothing, fuel and other costs were making it harder than ever
to meet expenses.
"Everything is going up. ...You buy food and get whatever you get on sale as much as possible," she said. " ...You have to cut back on a lot of other things."
The 1990s were a period of slight decreases in the concentration of
poverty in U.S. cities.
"The economic downturn at the beginning of this decade, coupled with a
sluggish recovery, slowed, and in many cases, reversed the positive gains
made by low-income families during the 1990s," the report states.
Report co-author Berube said Rochester's increase of poor people being segregated by income does not mean that more poor people are moving to traditionally poor neighborhoods.
"Rather, we are seeing the downturn in the economy in the early part of the decade disproportionately effecting the residents living in these areas," Berube said.
High concentrations of impoverished residents generate higher costs for local governments, such as financial assistance, police, and health care costs, the study says.
Robinson and fellow residents of northeast Rochester, an area with decades-long poverty, are living through what the Brookings Institution study calls the effects of poverty. These indicators include:
'A huge impact'
Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy said poverty is often a downward spiral and a
driving factor behind high school dropout rates, drug sales, street crime,
job loss and disinvestment by businesses in city neighborhoods, which result
in fewer economic opportunities in neighborhoods with the highest economic
need. "I think poverty has a huge impact on some of the many challenges we
are facing here in Rochester. It has a dramatic impact on our city
government, how we apportion money and what we focus on in city government,"
Duffy said Wednesday.
More funding for public safety, housing and emergency assistance must go into high poverty areas, Duffy said. Long-term change will take commitment by government, business, support agencies and residents.
Robinson is hopeful Avenue D and the surrounding neighborhood will
improve.
"It has come back some. I hope it can continue," she said.
In 2005, the earned income eligibility limit for single EITC tax filers was
$11,750. Eligibility limits change based on various filing situations.
Living on the edge
Angelo Olles, 37, who rents a room on Frederick Douglass Street in Corn
Hill, was a client at St. Joseph's House of Hospitality on South Avenue
earlier this year.
He has found work doing security and cleaning jobs, and volunteers there now, in part, to give back to the organization that helped him, but also so he can continue to receive free lunch.
Olles said he filed an EITC for the first time last year, and got about
$125 back.
"Something is better than nothing, always," he said. "It's hard out here.
It's hard. Just getting around is tough."
For the last 15 months, Wayne Johnson, 47, a former environmental services worker at Strong Memorial Hospital, has survived on unemployment insurance, food stamps, emergency support such as St. Joseph's and the generosity of his church to keep him in his North Goodman Street apartment.
He said he applied for an EITC when he was working but did not qualify.
Brent Smith, 23, rents a $360 a month one-bedroom apartment on Driving Park
in northwest Rochester and works at Associated Textile Rental on St. Paul
Street. He often stays with family, and, for the last two weeks or so, has
eaten free lunches at St. Joseph's.
"I've got to go with the free food. It's free," said Smith, who left Franklin High School for good in the 11th grade and has a limited work history. "It's hard to find a good job in Rochester."
Smith, who has never filed for an earned income tax credit, wouldn't show
up on the Brookings Institute study.
GMCLENDN@DemocratandChronicle.com