Opportunity Matters Place, Space and Life Outcomes

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Opportunity MattersPlace, Space and Life Outcomes
Jason Reece, AICP Denis Rhoden, AICP Kirwan
Institute for the Study of Race Ethnicity
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Place and Life Outcomes

• Where you live is more important than what you
  live in
• Housing -- in particular its location -- is the
  primary mechanism for accessing opportunity in
  our society
• Housing location determines the quality of
  schools children attend, the quality of public
  services they receive, access to employment and
  transportation, exposure to health risks, access
  to health care, etc.
• For those living in high poverty neighborhoods,
  these factors can significantly inhibit life
  outcomes

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Housing and Opportunity

• Housing is Critical in Determining Access to
  Opportunity

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The Web of Opportunity

• Opportunities in our society are geographically
  distributed (and often clustered) throughout
  metropolitan areas
• This creates winner and loser communities or
  high and low opportunity communities
• Your location within this web of opportunity
  plays a decisive role in your life potential and
  outcomes
• Individual characteristics still matter
• but so does access to opportunity, such as good
  schools, health care, child care, and job
  networks

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The Cumulative Impacts of Racial and Opportunity
Segregation
Segregation impacts a number of life-opportunities
Impacts on Health
School Segregation
Impacts on Educational Achievement
Exposure to crime arrest
Transportation limitations and other inequitable
public services
Job segregation
Neighborhood Segregation
Racial stigma, other psychological impacts
Impacts on community power and individual assets
Adapted from figure by Barbara Reskin at
http//faculty.washington.edu/reskin/
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Economic Conditions
High Opportunity
Low Opportunity
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School Conditions
High Opportunity
Low Opportunity
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Communities of Opportunity

• The Communities of Opportunity framework is a
  model of fair housing and community development
• The model is based on the premises that
• Everyone should have fair access to the critical
  opportunity structures needed to succeed in life
• Affirmatively connecting people to opportunity
  creates positive, transformative change in
  communities

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Communities of Opportunity

• The Communities of Opportunity model advocates
  for a fair investment in all of a regions people
  and neighborhoods -- to improve the life outcomes
  of all citizens, and to improve the health of the
  entire region
• A focus on people, investing in our residents
  (and their communities) to produce transformative
  change

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People, Places and Linkages

• People
• We need to build human capital through improved
  wealth-building, educational achievement, and
  social and political empowerment
• Examples
• Promoting/protecting homeownership for residents,
  helping low income families access tax credits,
  leadership training, job training, asset building
  strategies, providing stable/supportive housing
  to those in need

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People, Places and Linkages

• Places
• We must invest in places by supporting
  neighborhood development initiatives, attracting
  jobs with living wages and advancement
  opportunities, and demanding high-quality local
  services for all neighborhoods, such as local
  public schools that perform
• Examples
• Improving school conditions, providing
  supplemental educational opportunities,
  supporting minority and small businesses in
  distressed communities, attracting jobs, spurring
  investment in housing and infrastructure,
  addressing vacant properties

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People, Places and Linkages

• Linkages
• We must also encourage better links among people
  and places, fostering mobility through
  high-quality public transportation services and
  region-wide housing mobility programs
• Examples
• Supporting and promoting fair housing, public
  transportation initiatives, allowing urban
  students access to suburban schools

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Neighborhoods of Opportunity and African American
MalesA Case Study of Seven Metropolitan Regions
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Indicators Used in Analysis Neighborhoods (some
examples)

• Education Indicators
• Student poverty rates, test scores, student
  teacher ratios
• Economic Indicators
• Job access, unemployment, job trends
• Neighborhood Quality
• Vacant and abandoned properties, crime rates,
  neighborhood poverty rates

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Findings

• 2 out of 3 African American males in the seven
  metropolitan areas were found in low opportunity
  communities
• Compared to 1 out 5 White males

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Youth 14 and Younger

• Similar results were found for younger males, 61
  of African American males under 14 were found in
  low opportunity communities

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Still More Questions To Answer

• Above we describe the proximity dimension of
  opportunity, but how close are we to
  understanding the access to opportunity
  question?
• Hypothetically, if everyone had access to
  opportunity, how would the region look different
  in terms of the distribution of Black and White
  children?
• Results

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Future Implications

• Opportunity is about a bundle of assets AND
  expectations about the future.
• Studying access or proximity at the group level
  helps to understand how, yet the question to date
  is why.
• Need more deliberate connections Between African
  American males other youths and African
  American males to regions population.
• Population trends show several ways out of the
  shadow of isolation move to the suburbs, leave
  regions, etc. Flight carries unique, because
  opportunity (assets expectations) is dynamic
  and unique across regions.
• Declining suburbs
• Gentrification
• Each region should consider understanding and
  developing strategic options to collocate and
  create opportunity access and opportunity across
  suburb, rural and urban environments, lift up
  what works with objective and emotive measures.

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