Opportunity Matters: African American Males and Access to Communities of Opportunity

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Opportunity MattersAfrican American Males and
Access to Communities of Opportunity

• Presentation to the Heinz Endowments
• Pittsburgh, PA
• Jason Reece, AICP
• Senior Researcher
• Reece.35_at_osu.edu
• The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race
  Ethnicity
• The Ohio State University
• September 26th 2008

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About the Institute

• Founded in 2003 at The Ohio State University
• Under the leadership of john a. powell
• Interdisciplinary and externally focused
• Working on projects at both the local, national
  and international level
• One of the largest race research centers in the
  nation
• More than 30 staff

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Discussion Points

• Access to Opportunity Matters
• Race, poverty, place and inequity
• The African American Male Initiative
• Mapping Access to Communities of Opportunity for
  African American Males
• Solutions
• An opportunity oriented model of social justice
• Looking for future threats

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Opportunity MattersRace, Poverty, Place and
Inequity
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Neighborhoods and Access to Opportunity

• Five decades of research indicate that your
  environment has a profound impact on your access
  to opportunity and likelihood of success
• Impoverished Blacks and Latinos are far more
  likely to live in neighborhoods of concentrated
  poverty
• These high poverty environments create deplorable
  living conditions and are a manifestation of
  living isolated from opportunity

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The Cumulative Impacts of Spatial, 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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Neighborhood location influences access to
schools.
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jobs
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neighborhood amenities
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Racial Segregation, Opportunity Segregation and
Racial Disparities

• Housing policies, discrimination, land use policy
  and patterns of regional investment and
  disinvestment converge to produce continued
  racial segregation in our society
• Producing a racial isolation in neighborhoods
  that are lacking the essential opportunities to
  advance in our society (fueling racial
  disparities)

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Who Lives in Concentrated Poverty Neighborhoods?

• Over 3.1 million African Americans lived in
  Concentrated Poverty Neighborhoods in 2000,
  Blacks and Latinos represent nearly 3 out of 4
  residents in these neighborhoods
• Nearly 1 out of 10 Blacks lived in a concentrated
  poverty neighborhood in 1999, compared to 1 out
  of 100 Whites
• Whites only make 30 of people living in high
  poverty neighborhoods, although they represent
  55 of the total population living in poverty

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The Kirwan Institutes African American Male
Initiative
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The African American Male Initiative

• The Kirwan Institute has a multi-year project to
  reopen the research on African American males
  (funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation)
• Research areas will include demographic-based
  research, psychological/psychosocial research, as
  well as political and economic research. The last
  comprehensive research was done in 1994
• Research directed by Dr. Ming Trammel, Senior
  Researcher at the Kirwan Institute
• trammel.2_at_osu.edu

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Opportunity Mapping

• Opportunity mapping is a research tool used to
  understand the dynamics of opportunity within
  metropolitan areas
• The purpose of opportunity mapping is to
  illustrate where opportunity rich communities
  exist (and assess who has access to these
  communities)
• Also, to understand what needs to be remedied in
  opportunity poor communities

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Neighborhood Conditions and Race A Case Study
Mapping Neighborhood Opportunities African
American Males in Seven Metros

• 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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The ResponseAn Opportunity Oriented Model of
Social Justice
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A Transformative Agenda Achieving Equity
through an Opportunity Based Model of Social
Justice

• Everyone should have fair access to the critical
  opportunity structures needed to succeed in life
• Low Opportunity neighborhoods limit the
  development of human capital
• A Community of Opportunity approach can develop
  pathways that result in increased social and
  economic health, benefiting everyone

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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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An Opportunity Based Housing Policy

• Affordable housing must be deliberately and
  intelligently connected to high performing
  schools, sustainable employment, necessary
  transportation infrastructure, childcare, and
  institutions that facilitate civic and political
  activity

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Looking at Emerging ThreatsHousing,
Foreclosure, Credit and Threats Facing African
American Males
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Place and Life Outcomes

• Housing, in particular its location, is the
  primary mechanism for accessing opportunity in
  our society
• For those living in high poverty neighborhoods
  these factors can significantly inhibit life
  outcomes
• Individual characteristics still matter but so
  does environment
• Environment can impact individual decision making

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Housing Location, Location, Location

• Housing location determines (some examples)
• The appreciation you can expect to see in your
  home value
• The quality of schools your children will attend
• Your exposure to crime, violence and public
  safety risk
• Your access to employment, transit and job
  networks
• Where you live is more important than what you
  live in

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Barriers to Fair HousingThe Web of Housing
Challenges
Housing Challenges
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Predatory Lending and Race Example (Cleveland)
Maps Produced and adapted from Charles Bromley,
SAGES Presidential Fellow, Case Western University
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Predatory Lending, Foreclosure and Race Example
(Cleveland)
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New Threats The Sub-Prime and Foreclosure
Challenge

• The result of the sub-prime foreclosure crisis
  in the US may significantly erode community
  development in urban African American
  neighborhoods and further isolate African
  American males
• 2 million foreclosures expected in the next two
  years
• Nationwide, nearly 55 of all high cost loans
  went to African American borrowers
• Experts estimate that the loss in home equity to
  African American and Latino homeowners will
  exceed a quarter of trillion dollars

Source United for a Fair Economy
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The Subprime Lending, Foreclosure and Race
Initiative at the Kirwan Institute
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