In the face of widening inequality and persistent racial economic gaps, Mayor Marty Walsh is implementing a new approach to achieving shared economic prosperity in Boston. Bolstered by the support of a powerful advocacy coalition and detailed data on financial inclusion, in 2014 Mayor Walsh opened a new Office of Financial Empowerment. “Whatever it is that we’ve been doing for the past 10 to 20 years may have helped,” program director Trinh Nguyen told Next City, “but it’s not denting inequality and access.” The Office of Financial Empowerment aims to move the city forward by providing financial empowerment services to those who need them most: low and middle-income Bostonians who’ve not benefited from recent growth.

Financial vulnerability is widespread and bad for Boston’s economic future

Family Assets Count, a coalition of local financial empowerment advocates along with national institutions CFED and Citi community development worked to bring financial security and detailed data on financial instability across Boston’s diverse communities to the city’s attention. Family Assets Count defines financial instability as the inability to cover basic expenses for three months after a major life disruption like a job loss or health crisis. An inability to save and invest in the future is not only harmful for individual families, it contributes to the rising inequality that is threatening sustained economic prosperity.

The coalition uses data from the CFED Assets and Local Opportunity Center to provide local estimates of financial vulnerability and catalyze new conversations about financial security in cities across the country. They provide two primary measures of financial instability: liquid asset poverty and asset poverty. A family is liquid asset poor if they don’t have enough in their savings to live above the poverty line for three months; they are asset poor if they don’t have enough net worth to live above the poverty line for three months.  

Credit: Family Assets Count/Financial Insecurity in Boston Data Profile

Family Assets Count, in partnership with the Midas Collaborative (a statewide asset-building organization), examined the data and found that financial insecurity in Boston is widespread. While the traditional income-based poverty measure estimates that 17 percent of Bostonians live below the poverty line, this measurement underestimates the 46 percent of Boston residents who are vulnerable to financial collapse should they experience normal life disruptions (download the Family Assets Count data profile of Boston). 

The prevalence of liquid asset poverty in Boston closely resembles national trends: an estimated 45 percent of households are liquid asset poor. When almost half of families don’t have savings, they can’t invest in their children’s education or their own retirement. Such anemic investment in the future undermines economic growth and prosperity — in Boston and in cities across the country.

While Bostonians of all levels of educational attainment experience financial insecurity, those without college degrees are much more likely to be financially insecure. About seven of every 10 residents without more than a high school degree are liquid asset poor compared with 25 percent of those with bachelor’s degrees.

Asset Poverty by Education

Credit: Family Assets Count/Financial Insecurity in Boston Data Profile

Demographic shifts in Boston make financial inclusion an economic imperative

The City of Boston has undergone a profound demographic shift over the past several decades and is now a majority people-of-color city. Yet Boston’s communities of color are far more likely to be financially insecure: 69 percent of Black households and 75 percent of Latino households are liquid asset poor compared with 29 percent of Whites. Latinos are the fastest-growing population in the city but they also have the highest rates of liquid asset poverty at 75 percent. Without strong and effective financial inclusion strategies, Boston’s economic future looks bleak.

Asset poverty by Race & Ethnicity

Credit: Family Assets Count/Financial Insecurity in Boston Data Profile

Mayor Walsh leads on financial inclusion

Given Boston’s growing economy, creating pathways to opportunity and prosperity for the 46 percent of Bostonians who are financially insecure is an economic and moral imperative. In an interview with WBUR, one of Boston’s National Public Radio news stations, Mayor Walsh said: “We have a city that is doing very well [and] a lot of people are doing well in our city, but we still have half our residents that aren’t and we have to really try and assist them and help them prosper during these good economic times.” 

The Office launched three Financial Opportunity Centers in partnership with United Way and Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). These centers provide a range of services including: financial coaching, job search and advancement support, tax filing support, and help applying for benefits. Two similar centers, run by United Way, demonstrated significant results last year. According to the City of Boston, “77 percent of clients at those centers who completed pre- and post-assessments reported increases in one or more of the following measures: net income, net worth, or credit score.”

The power of data in the hands of a strong coalition

Financial insecurity data can be paradigm-shifting for communities and policymakers, like Mayor Walsh, who want prosperity for all but don’t have a clear picture of who’s being left out and which communities need to be lifted up to get there. Community advocates in the Midas Collaborative have been working toward equitable growth and financial security for all residents knowing full well the extent of the city’s existing inequities. The Family Assets Count data helped make the problem urgent and undeniable. Margaret Miley, executive director of the Midas Collaborative, said “the data provided an opportunity to frame the urgency of the problem and to focus a broad group of stakeholders for action.”

CFED Project Director Solana Rice said that Family Assets Count data profiles, like the profile of Boston, create “an opportunity for our partners to reframe and reposition themselves for new partnerships.” The Midas collaborative and Family Assets Count found a new partner in Mayor Walsh who cited the Family Assets Count data in his announcement of the office. You can watch a video about how partners lifted up data to influence Boston’s financial inclusion strategy [here].

Following in Boston’s lead, financial inclusion strategies are ramping up across the country. Family Assets Count is partnering with organizations in nine other cities to implement some of these municipal strategies for financial security, including: Chicago, Houston, Miami, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Oakland, the Bronx (New York City), and Newark. In addition to working closely with these 10 cities over the next two years, Family Assets Count features estimates of financial inclusion for thousands of cities and counties on their online mapping tool — find out how your city is doing [here].

One of the main reasons why we built the National Equity Atlas was to provide changemakers with the data they need to frame why racial and economic inclusion matters to the future of their regions. So we are thrilled to learn how our allies are using Atlas data and visualizations to make compelling presentations and expose more people to the idea that equity is both an economic and moral imperative.

Last month, our partner Adam Friedman, who leads the Pratt Center for Community Development in New York City, used Equity Atlas data to talk about the importance of inclusive growth and urban manufacturing as a critical strategy at the Philadelphia Fed’s Equitable Economic Development Conference held in Lancaster, PA. “The Atlas is a quick, easy way to analyze how an area is doing in comparison to the rest of the nation” says Friedman, “More than an overview, it lets you do some quick diagnoses about current and future challenges.” (Download his presentation.)

The Federal Reserve of Philadelphia, in partnership with the Community First Fund, hosted the conference to explore how to include equity goals in economic development planning and decision-making. Lancaster Online coverage of the event reported over 100 in attendance to learn about regional strategies for more equitable growth.

Friedman used the Equity Atlas to describe the challenges of rising inequality and persistent racial inequities in Lancaster, PA: the site of the conference. Friedman presented Lancaster’s economic and workforce challenges and described how growing good, accessible jobs and investing in the skills and capabilities of its less-educated communities and growing communities of color are central to the region’s economic prosperity and competitiveness.

Friedman made several key points:

Income disparity is growing in Lancaster

While Lancaster is growing more middle-skills jobs than many other regions, wages are relatively stagnant across the board, contributing to widening inequality. Between 1980-2012, households at the 10^th percentile (the bottom 10 percent) saw their incomes increase by a mere 0.3 percent compared to incomes at the 90^th percentile (the top 10 percent) which increased 13 percent. 

Credit: Adam Friedman/Presentation at the Equitable Economic Development Conference 

The region’s workers of color face a large wage gap. While about 67 percent of White workers earned at least $15/hour during the 2008-2012 period, only 44 percent of workers of color did.   

Credit: Adam Friedman/Presentation at the Equitable Economic Development Conference 

The Lancaster region is not adequately preparing any of its racial/ethnic groups for the jobs of the future

Latinos are the regions fastest growing population but only 13 percent of Lancaster’s U.S.-born Latinos will be prepared for the more than 44 percent of jobs that will require an Associate’s degree in 2020.

Credit: Adam Friedman/Presentation at the Equitable Economic Development Conference  

Credit: Adam Friedman/Presentation at the Equitable Economic Development Conference 

Lancaster would be stronger with racial economic inclusion

These racial economic inequities take a toll on Lancaster’s economy: the regional economy could have been $1 billion larger in 2012 if there were no racial gaps in income.

Urban Manufacturing as a Strategy for Equitable Economic Development

Urban manufacturing is one equitable economic development and job creation strategy that regions like Lancaster should consider. Growing middle-wage jobs is critical for regions because they provide pathways to economic security and also because living wage jobs are the critical counterpoint to rising housing costs. While manufacturing has been in decline for decades, cities and regions are experiencing a new wave of urban manufacturing—including the “maker economy” and facilities like TechShop that are making it possible to launch small manufacturing companies in cities as well as advanced and supply chain manufacturers.

Most efforts focused on supporting innovation sector growth do not include a focus on equity and inclusion for workers or neighborhoods. The Pratt Center’s Equitable Innovation Economy (EIE) initiative is taking on this challenge to help cities develop strategies that increase access and economic inclusion within the innovation economy and local manufacturing sectors. This effort, a partnership between Pratt, the Urban Manufacturing Alliance, and PolicyLink, centers around a learning community with four cities that are each working on different inclusive innovation economy sectors and strategies. Indianapolis, for example, is focused on attracting employers by reviving legacy industrial properties. San Jose is trying to create more career pathways into hardware manufacturing and the maker economy. Portland is focusing on their tech, green-tech and athletic and outdoor industries. New York is seeking to extend innovation-sector opportunity across its five boroughs.

Working together to share equitable job creation strategies, the four Cities are rejecting the age old notion that Cities must compete with one another for jobs and are instead sharing program ideas and best practices to lift each other up. The goal is to expand their network and the number of cities that are building equitable innovation sectors.

We look forward to updates about how the partners are advancing their equitable economic development goals and will highlight their progress as they move forward. Many thanks to Adam for sharing with us how he is using the Equity Atlas.

How are you using the Atlas in your work? Please let us know by filling out this survey or writing me at tsmiley@policlink.org.

The University of Missouri- St. Louis Public Policy Research Center (PPRC) just released an equity report of the St. Louis Region based on National Equity Atlas data. Mark Tranel, the director of PPRC, told St. Louis Public Radio that the report is meant to “be a tool for government agencies and non-profit organizations working to bridge disparity gaps in St. Louis.” Founded 25 years ago, PPRC does applied policy research to promote the region’s progress and prosperity. In an effort to understand inequity in the region, the report authors explored the changing demographics, persisting racial inequities, and the economic benefits of an equitable regional economy. The St. Louis economy would have been nearly $14 billion larger in 2012 if there were no racial gaps in income.

The first section of the report explores the changing demographics of the St. Louis region and projects that by 2040, people of color will be 33.4 percent of the population, up from 20 percent in 1980. Communities of color have also been driving growth since 1990 whereas White growth decreased in 7 of 15 counties from 2000-2013 and was marginal in the remaining 8 counties.

Using the Equity Atlas framework for an equitable economy, the report details indicators of economic vitality, readiness and connectedness. Large racial disparities persisted across all three categories. In terms of economic vitality, White St. Louisans make about $5 more per hour than St. Louisans of color, a slight reduction from the $6 gap in 1980. The unemployment rate for people of color in St. Louis was twice the rate of White unemployment and was the highest it had been since 1980.

There were also large racial disparities in measures of connectedness. One of the report’s most unsettling findings is that nearly 17 percent of Black St. Louisans live in high-poverty neighborhoods compared with less than one percent of Whites.

Credit: University of Missouri–St. Louis/Public Policy Research Center

Youth of color were more disconnected from education and work in St. Louis, which is likely to hinder their ability to participate, thrive, and contribute to the region’s workforce and economic prosperity.

Credit: University of Missouri–St. Louis/Public Policy Research Center

Ultimately, the report outlined the enormous potential economic gains of racial equity: the region’s economy could be $14 billion larger with an average of 63% income gains for people of color. The authors hope that the report will be a tool for government agencies as the St. Louis region joins, “a growing number of metropolitan areas that are proactively addressing issues of equity.”

We look forward to seeing how advocates and policymakers use this report as a tool to create a more equitable and prosperous St. Louis region. This report also provides a terrific model of how local communities can develop their own Equity Profiles using data available in the National Equity Atlas.

Today we are excited to announce the addition of four new indicators to the Atlas:

• Median Age
• Asthma
• Diabetes
• Commute Time

 

Here’s what you can find for each of the indicators:

Median age: What’s the average age of residents in your community?

Latinos and other communities of color are comparatively younger than whites in most regions. As younger populations grow increasingly diverse and the senior population remains largely white, ensuring the success of youth of color – our future workforce – will become increasingly important to regional economies.

What it measures

This indicator measures the average age of residents by race/ethnicity.

Key facts

• People of Other/mixed race and Latinos are the youngest racial/ethnic groups in the United States, with a median age of 20 and 27, respectively.
• The median age of people of color is about 13 years younger than Whites: 29 compared to 42 years old.

 

How to find it

1. Click indicators on the navigation bar
2. Select the “Median age” indicator under Demographics
3. Select “By race/ethnicity” in the breakdowns underneath the chart
4. Here is what you will see

Credit: Median age by race/ethnicy/National Equity Atlas 

This data can be used to support strategies that would ensure all youth, including low-income children of color can access the education and supports they need to succeed. For example, the implementation of Universal Pre-K in Tulsa has proven to have strong economic and social benefits, improving future earnings potential by thousands of dollars.

 

Asthma: What share of adults suffer from asthma?

Healthy workers are critical to a healthy regional economy.  However, adult asthma leads to more frequent absences from work, and can result in lower productivity on the job.  Asthma is more than a physical health problem; its prevalence and severity are directly affected by environmental, housing and social conditions often present in lower income communities of color.  Poor children are more likely to live in neighborhoods with known toxicities and attend schools and recreation centers filled with undetected asthma triggers.  As a result, low-income families spend more of their time and limited resources addressing asthma-related hospitalizations.

What it measures

Percent of adults with asthma by race/ethnicity.

Key facts

• Nationally, one in every seven Native Americans and those of Other/mixed race suffer from asthma.
• Among the largest 150 metropolitan regions, Vallejo, CA has the highest share of adults with asthma (14 percent). Yet within the same state, the nearby region of Salinas, CA has one of the lowest rates at 6 percent (ranking 143^rd).

 

How to find it

1. Click indicators on the navigation bar
2. Select the Equity indicator “Asthma” under Readiness
3. Select “Ranking,” “Region,” and “All” in the breakdowns underneath the chart
4. Here is what you will see

Credit: Percent of adults with asthma by race/ethnicity/National Equity Atlas

Data on asthma rates can be used to press for the reduction of hazardous chemicals, pesticides and emissions from industrial plants, automobiles, and diesel engines in your community. It can also be used to call for targeted green jobs and investments in communities with high risks and inequities.

 

Diabetes: What share of adults are diabetic in your state or region?

Healthy neighborhoods provide residents with access to parks, healthy food, clean air, safe streets, and health care and social services. When communities lack these components, residents are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, which in turn affect their ability to fully participate in the workforce.

What it measures

Percent of adults with diabetes by race/ethnicity.

Key facts

• West Virginia has the highest share of adults with diabetes: 12.2 percent compared to 9.4 percent nationally.
• Latinos in West Virginia have the lowest rate of diabetes (10.2 percent), compared to 12.2 percent of Whites, and 14.5 percent of Blacks.

 

How to find it

1. Click indicators on the navigation bar
2. Select the Equity indicator “Diabetes” under Readiness
3. Select “By race/ethnicity” in the breakdowns underneath the chart
4. Enter West Virginia in the “Compare” field
5. Here is what you will see

Credit: Percent of adults with diabetes by race/ethnicity/National Equity Atlas 

Data on diabetes rates can be used promote healthy eating and active living in your community. Policies and programs that improve the quality of school lunches, access to farmers markets, and create opportunities for physical activity can improve health outcomes for all residents.

 

Commute time: How does average travel time to work vary by race/ethnicity in your state or region?

In an equitable region, all workers would have comparable commute times regardless of race/ethnicity. Long commute times indicate a lack of nearby job opportunities and slow transit options, and can lead to high transportation and child care costs, job instability, and lower quality of life for workers.

What it measures

Average travel time to work (minutes) by race/ethnicity.

Key facts

• The average commute time for U.S. workers using public transportation is 47.6 minutes, nearly double the commute time of workers using private modes of transit (24.5 minutes).
• Blacks on average have the highest public transit commute times at 50.1 minutes, followed Asians at 48.2 minutes, and those of other/mixed race at 47.9 minutes.
• Commute times vary significantly by geography. For example, public transit users in Nevada on average spend 10 more minutes commuting to work (57.1 minutes). For black workers it’s even longer at 62 minutes.

 

How to find it

1. Click indicators on the navigation bar
2. Select the Equity indicator “Commute time” under Connectedness
3. Select “By year,” “Public,” and “2012” in the breakdowns underneath the chart
4. Enter Nevada in the “Compare” field
5. Here is what you will see

Credit: Average travel time to work (minutes) by race/ethnicity/National Equity Atlas 

This data can be used to advocate for the development of robust public transit systems including buses and bus rapid transit that connect low-income communities to jobs, education and training opportunities, and services. Transit-oriented developments (TODs) that include clear equity goals can be an effective tool to expand affordability and access low-income residents and prevent displacement of both people and small businesses.

 

We hope you'll enjoy exploring these new indicators! Please share your thoughts on these Atlas additions, and tell us how you'll be using this data to inform change in your community. You can contact us at info@nationalequityatlas.org.