National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Atlas Users,

We hope you are enjoying the end of summer! We had a busy month with the release of five new equity profiles, a national convening on how to design equity data tools for community action, and the release of the All-In Cities Policy Toolkit.

New Equity Profiles Released for Five Communities
Understanding the state of equity in your community is a crucial first step to developing equitable growth strategies, but such comprehensive assessments are rare, especially for smaller communities. With support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the National Equity Atlas team recently released equity profiles for five smaller communities: Las Cruces and Farmington, New Mexico; Biloxi and Sunflower County, Mississippi; and Battle Creek, Michigan. During our June 29 webinar, Jessica Pizarek and James Crowder of PolicyLink shared key findings with the field and local leaders from the five communities described how they would use the data to advance equity efforts.

Powering Health Equity Action with Online Data Tools Convening
On July 10, the National Equity Atlas team and Ecotrust hosted a convening in Portland focused on how data tools like the Atlas can power community action towards health equity. About 40 researchers, advocates, data users, and funders shared learnings and workshopped a set of design principles for online data tools for health equity. One of the panels featured Nathaniel Smith from the Partnership for Southern Equity, Sam Sinyangwe from Campaign Zero/Mapping Police Violence, Julia Sebastian from Race Forward, Cat Goughnour from Prosperity Now, and Antwi Akom from Streetwyze, ISEEED, and the Social Innovation and Urban Opportunity Lab at the University of California, San Franiciso and San Francisco State University. Watch that panel discussion here and look out for a final report on the convening and design principles in the fall.

Chart of the Week: Rollback of St. Louis Minimum Wage Hike Drags Down Missouri Economy
Come August 28, St. Louis’s minimum wage will drop from $10/hour to $7.70/hour, thanks to a new Missouri law that prevents municipalities from enacting higher minimum wages than the state standard. This shortsighted policy harms workers and ultimately the state’s economy since lower wages translate into less spending and higher levels of public assistance for the working poor. It also hinders sorely needed progress toward racial equity, as illustrated by our chart of the week. In St. Louis, median hourly wages for full-time workers has remained $18/hour since 1990, while the wage gap between Black and White workers has doubled. To be the first to view each week's chart, follow @PolicyLink on Twitter and visit the Data in Action section of the National Equity Atlas.

New Resource: All-In Cities Policy Toolkit
Interested in learning more about policy solutions to advance racial inclusion and equitable growth? Check out the new All-In Cities Policy Toolkit released July 13. It provides more information on many of the policy strategies shared on the Atlas including living wage provisions, local and targeted hiring, summer youth employment, housing trust funds, racial equity impact assessments, and more. Click here to view the toolkit launch webinar with a demo on how to navigate the site, and stay tuned for new content!

New Study Shows Less Income Inequality = Greater Economic Resilience
A new article in Regional Studies, by three economists at the University of Idaho exploring the relationship between income equality and economic resilience, found that the risk of recession was lower for more equitable counties during the Great Recession. Why was this the case? Because higher-income households are less likely to spend money locally than lower-income households and because growing consumer debt makes the middle-class more vulnerable. Check out this overview in CityLab, and find this and other resources to make the economic case for equity on the Atlas.

Thank you!

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

Chart of the Week: Missouri Rolls Back St. Louis Minimum Wage Hike

To add equity data to the national dialogue about growth and prosperity, every week the National Equity Atlas team posts a new chart from the Equity Atlas related to current events and issues.

Today, minimum-wage workers in St. Louis make $10/hour. This is only after a two-year battle in the courts in which the Missouri Supreme Court ultimately upheld the City of St. Louis’s authority to raise its minimum wage following a suit brought by business owners against a 2015 city ordinance. But come August 28, their wages will drop to $7.70/hour thanks to the state government – costing the average full-time, minimum-wage worker in St. Louis about $4,600 per year in lost pay.

Income inequality in the city was higher than the nation in 1990 and has only increased since. Rising inequality does not only hurt low- and middle-wage workers; it also acts as a drag on economic growth for the whole region. More equitable economies, on the other hand, are more resilient and experience more sustained economic growth. Still, Missouri Governor Eric Greitens claimed, without evidence, that the city ordinance “will take money out of people’s pockets,” while allowing a bill that will literally take money out of worker’s paychecks to become law. As State Senator Jamilah Nasheed, whose district includes St. Louis, points out: “Missouri taxpayers shell out $2.4 billion per year in public assistance to make up for the fact that big companies like McDonald’s and Walmart don’t pay their workers enough to survive. Governor [Eric] Greitens and Republican legislators in Jefferson City may be content to let taxpayers subsidize poverty [to] pay for big business, but St. Louis is choosing a different path. One way or another, we are going to save this raise.”

This week’s chart shows how even though there has been no real increase in the median hourly wage since 1990, the Black-White wage gap as doubled. While the median wage captures workers in the middle of the wage distribution, research has shown that minimum wage increases produce “ripple effects” or increases in those earning above the minimum wage. More importantly, a living wage for a family consisting of one adult and one child in St. Louis is over $20/hour, but the median wage has remained $18/hour since 1990. At the same time, the Black-White wage gap has doubled. White workers experienced a $2/hour increase in median wages from 1990 to 2014 while the Black median wage declined $1/hour. Despite stagnant wage growth among all workers, the state of Missouri is still working to suppress wages for low-wage workers.

In an equitable city and state, wages would reflect differences in education, training, experience, as well as pay scales across occupations and industries, but would not vary systematically by race or gender. But National Equity Atlas data shows that full-time White workers have a higher median wage than Black workers in St. Louis and Missouri at nearly every education level. Importantly, this law will hurt all low-wage workers throughout the state, taking hard-earned money of out people’s paychecks in order to deepen the pockets of large businesses.

To see how median wages have changed in your city or state, visit the National Equity Atlas and type in your city or state. Download and share the chart on social media using #equitydata.

National Equity Atlas Update

June 27, 2017

Dear Atlas User,

Summer is here, and the demand for data to drive community action for health equity and inclusive growth continues to grow! We are busy preparing for two important events: the release of five new equity profiles for smaller communities and a national conversation about data tools for health equity action in Portland. We were also thrilled to see our data on working poverty used in an op-ed for Teen Vogue refuting HUD Secretary Ben Carson's claim that poverty is "a state of mind."

July 10 Webcast: Data Tools for Health Equity Action

Join us on July 10 at 11 a.m. PDT/2 p.m. EDT for a livestreamed panel discussion in Portland with national leaders who are using and designing data tools to drive health equity action. Speakers include Nathaniel Smith from the Partnership for Southern Equity, Sam Sinyangwe from Campaign Zero and Mapping Police Violence, Julia Sebastian from Race Forward, Cat Goughnour from Radix Consulting and Right 2 Root, and Antwi Akom from Streetwyze, ISEEED, and the Social Innovation and Urban Opportunity Lab at UCSF and SFS. PolicyLink Senior Director Sarah Treuhaft will moderate. The event is co-hosted by PolicyLink and Ecotrust and generously supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. REGISTER NOW.

June 29 Webinar: Disaggregated Data for Equitable Growth in Smaller Cities

On Thursday, June 29 (11 a.m. PDT/2 p.m. EDT), the Equity Atlas team is holding a webinar highlighting the release of new equity data profiles for five smaller communities: Las Cruces and Farmington, New Mexico; Biloxi and Sunflower County, Mississippi; and Battle Creek, Michigan. Local community leaders, including Rodolfo Acosta-Perez from the Community Action Agency of Southern New Mexico, Josh Davis, Delta Health Alliance, Allytra Perryman of the East Biloxi Community Collaborative, and Jorge Zeballos, Center for Diversity and Innovation at Kellogg Community College, will share how they plan to use the data to advance their work. These profiles were developed with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Register here.

New Detroit Equity Profile

After decades of job and population loss, the City of Detroit has shown recent signs of growth, yet deep racial inequities, declining wages, and a hollowing out of middle-wage, high-opportunity jobs threaten the city's rebound and economic viability. Developed with the support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, this new equity profile highlights how pursuing equitable growth can benefit all residents and businesses in Detroit. For example, had racial inequities in income been eliminated in 2014, the Detroit region's GDP could have been $29 billion larger, a 13 percent increase. We released this profile at a gathering of community leaders on June 13 and also presented our findings at the Allied Media Conference Good Food Good Jobs Network Gathering hosted by FoodLab Detroit.

Chart of the Week is Back!

After a brief hiatus, the Atlas Chart of the Week is back! This week's chart #ProtectMedicaid shows the states with the highest share of people living below 150 percent of the federal poverty line, highlighting those who have expanded Medicaid. To be the first to view each week's chart, follow @PolicyLink on Twitter and visit the Data in Action section of the National Equity Atlas.

In the News…

  • In a recent op-ed for Teen Vogue, writer Lincoln Blades shares our data on working poverty to dispute the perception that poverty is a mindset, responding to HUD Secretary Ben Carson's comment, "I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind."
  • The Long Island Equity Profile released April 24 continues to gain traction. As reported by Newsday, Theresa Sanders of the Long Island Urban League presented the findings to the Long Island Regional Planning Council, the Long Island economy could be $24 billion stronger with racial equity. The council's chair found that statistic "startling" and sought solutions to advance equitable growth in the region.

 

Thank you!

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

Chart of the Week: #ProtectMedicaid

To add equity data to the national dialogue about growth and prosperity, every week the National Equity Atlas team posts a new chart from the Equity Atlas related to current events and issues.

Last week, Senate Republicans unveiled their health care bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Like the ACA, the House and Senate bills provide health insurance subsidies through tax credits. But they also roll back federal money to states that opt-in to the Medicaid expansion through the ACA and end Medicaid as an open-ended entitlement.

This week’s chart highlights the share of people living below 150 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) and the states that have expanded Medicaid coverage. For states that have expanded coverage, individuals in a household with an income below 138 percent of the FPL are eligible for Medicaid. As the chart below shows, among the five states with the highest share of people of color below 150 percent of the FPL, only Arkansas and Montana have elected to expand Medicaid. The two states with the highest share of people of color below 150 percent of the FPL —South Dakota and Mississippi, where more than half of people of color live below this poverty threshold — have not expanded Medicaid. At the same time, the three states with the highest share of White people below 150 percent of the FPL — West Virginia, Kentucky, and Arkansas — have expanded Medicaid.

As the Senate prepares to bring the health care bill to the floor this week, call your Senators at (202) 224-3121 to encourage them to save Medicaid, which insures nearly one in five Americans.  

To see how poverty varies in your city, region, or state, visit the National Equity Atlas and share the chart of your community using #ProtectMedicaid and #equitydata.

Atlas Data Helps Make the Case that Poverty Is More Than A “State of Mind”

Atlas Data Helps Make the Case that Poverty Is More Than A “State of Mind”

In a recent op-ed for Teen Vogue, writer Lincoln Blades disputes the perception that poverty is a mindset, responding to Ben Carson’s comment during a radio interview, “I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind. You take somebody that has the right mindset, you can take everything from them and put them on the street, and I guarantee in a little while they’ll be right back up there.”

Blades uses National Equity Atlas as a resource to outline the extent that Americans experience poverty as a tangible, lived reality, showing:

  • There are more than 100 million Americans living at or below 200 percent of the poverty line.

  • The share of Americans working full-time and landing in poverty increased between 2000 and 2012.

He writes, “Poverty in America is less about something that you do to yourself, and more about something that is done to you, either against your will or without your knowledge and consent. Poverty isn't about your state of mind as much as it is about policy and plunder.”

Read the full story in Teen Vogue.

National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Atlas Users,

It has been a busy month! We released new profiles in Buffalo and Grand Rapids, and are working to finalize several others while doing some strategic planning for the next few years of the Equity Atlas. We are also beginning to think about the equity data elements of the upcoming Equity Summit 2018 to be held in Chicago April 11-13. Mark your calendars now!

Data Driving Health Equity Action in Buffalo
With millions in public and private investments on the horizon, Buffalo is poised for resurgence. But the city’s long-term prosperity hinges on addressing its wide racial and economic inequities in health, wealth, and opportunity. On May 8, in partnership with Open Buffalo and through the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, we released a profile and policy brief showcasing health equity as the path to stronger and more inclusive growth in Buffalo. At the event, Atlas team member Ángel Ross shared data showing how Buffalo’s economy could have been over $4 billion stronger in 2014 absent its racial gaps in income, and community leaders discussed how strategies such as inclusionary zoning, community land trusts, and anchor investments in health and economic inclusion can move the city forward for all.

Grand Rapids Equity Profile Released at Facing Inclusion Event
On April 26, An Equity Profile of Grand Rapids was released during a panel discussion and community forum at 2017 FORUM: Facing Inclusion, a convening held by Partners for a Racism-Free Community focused on elevating issues of equity in the city. The profile lends new analyses to support important action already being lead by local advocates to create more equitable opportunities for all residents of the city. Since January, PolicyLink and PERE have been working with advocates in Grand Rapids to develop an equity profile of the city, with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

In the News…
Several local and national news outlets covered the Long Island and New Orleans profiles that were released last month:


Thank you!

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Equity Atlas Users,

Happy April! It has been a busy month with the release of three new equity profiles for Fresno county, New Orleans city, and Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk counties). We have enjoyed working with many local partners to produce critical data to inform equitable growth strategies in these very different communities.

Kicking Things Off in Fresno
Since January, PolicyLink and PERE have been working with the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability to develop an equity profile of Fresno County, with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The profile and policy brief were released on April 11 at a forum and panel discussion focused on the implications for this research in health equity campaigns. In addition to the unique data analysis, the documents contain actionable solutions for residents, advocates, business leaders, and policymakers seeking to reduce racial inequalities and build a stronger Fresno. The Leadership Counsel intends to use the information in the profile to mobilize residents and advocates around California’s Transformative Climate Communities Program.

New Data Profile Supports City of New Orleans Equity Strategy
On April 20, the City of New Orleans officially launched its Equity Strategy, describing how local government will do its part to build a stronger, more inclusive city by advancing equity through its operations and decisionmaking. At the event, PolicyLink and PERE released an equity profile of New Orleans, the first of a series of ten new equity profiles produced with the support of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. PolicyLink has been working with the Office of Mayor Landrieu to provide assistance with developing its equity strategy for the past year through its All-In Cities initiative, and Senior Director Sarah Treuhaft participated on the panel at the launch event and then held a session to share the findings of the equity profile.

Empowering Black Long Island
An Equity Profile of Long Island was released today in partnership with the Long Island Urban League and through the support of Citi Community Development, the Long Island Community Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The profile and policy brief, Empowering Black Long Island: How Equity Is Key to the Future of Nassau and Suffolk Counties highlight how Long Island is rapidly growing more diverse, yet persistent racial inequities thwart inclusive prosperity in the region. Black Long Islanders in particular, who were largely excluded from the massive federally subsidized suburban development that characterizes Long Island, continue to face barriers to full social, economic, and political inclusion. These inequities put the region’s long-term economic future at risk: Long Island’s economy could have been nearly $24 billion stronger in 2014 alone if racial gaps in income were eliminated. Check out the conversation that took place on social media at #EquityLongIsland.

Atlas Data Supports Argument against State Preemption in Facing South
In a recent op-ed, Allie Yee of the Institute for Southern Studies details how Republican-controlled statehouses in the South have been pushing to undermine local authority in liberal-leaning cities. She uses National Equity Atlas data to prove that workers of color bear the brunt of the consequences of Georgia’s bans on local minimum wage increases and local requirements for paid leave. To learn more about the working poor in your state, explore the working poor indicator on the Atlas.

Thank you!
The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

Atlas Data Supports Argument against State Preemption

In a recent op-ed published in Facing South, the online magazine of the Institute for Southern Studies, Allie Yee details how Republican-controlled statehouses in the South have been pushing to undermine local authority in liberal-leaning cities. Moreover, that, “the brunt of those consequences are borne disproportionately by women, people of color, LGBT people, low-income communities, immigrants and those at the intersection of these identities.”

 

She uses National Equity Atlas data to show who suffers the consequences of Georgia’s bans on local minimum wage increases and local requirements for paid leave, writing:

In 2014, according to the National Equity Atlas, 16.6 percent of women of color and 17.7 percent of men of color in the state were considered working poor, defined as those working full-time and living below 200 percent of the poverty level. That compares to only 7.8 percent of white men and 6.1 percent of white women.

To learn more about the working poor in your state, explore the working poor indicator on the Atlas.

National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Equity Atlas Users,

Spring is a busy time for equity data! Our team is hard at work producing 15 new equity profiles, most of which will be released in April and May. We also began digging into our new project focused on employment equity in southern states, and hosted a webinar sharing local jobs equity strategies in New Orleans and Minneapolis.

Employment Equity in Southern States Project Launched
Quality employment is the foundation of a thriving, shared prosperity economy, but even in today's nearly "full employment" economy, many workers of color remain jobless, underemployed, or struggling to get by in low-wage, precarious jobs. With support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, PolicyLink and PERE are working to build employment equity in five southern states: Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and North Carolina. We will analyze the potential economic gains of realizing full employment for workers of every race and gender and work with local partners in each state to effectively frame the research, understand barriers to employment, and present policy solutions at the state and local level. Last week marked the official launch of the project in Alabama, where we are partnering with the Alabama Asset Building Coalition; and Georgia in with the Partnership for Southern Equity.

Webinar Recap: Targeted Strategies to Reduce Employment Inequality
U.S. unemployment rates have fallen across the board, but joblessness remains a pressing challenge for workers of color in many metros. Building on the analysis in our recent brief, Race, Place, and Jobs: Reducing Employment Inequality in America’s Metros, the National Equity Atlas team hosted a webinar on March 23 to lift up local approaches and strategies to close the employment gap in areas of racially concentrated unemployment. Our guest speakers were Asali Ecclesiastes, Claiborne Corridor program manager at the Network for Economic Opportunity (an initiative of the City of New Orleans), and Tawanna Black, executive director of the Neighborhood Funders Group in Minneapolis. You can view the webinar recording online and download the slides now.

#DayWithoutAWoman and St. Louis’s Minimum Wage Win
In the latest Chart of the Week posts, PolicyLink Research Associate Ángel Ross looked at two issues critical to advancing equitable growth locally.

  • For International Women’s Day and in solidarity with the #DayWithoutAWoman campaign, this analysis of the gender wage gap in Oakland highlights the racial and gender-based discrimination that continues to relegate women of color to the lower rungs of the economic system.
  • After the Missouri Supreme Court upheld the city of St. Louis’s authority to raise its minimum wage to $11/hour by 2018 earlier this month, this chart underscores the importance of this victory. Black and Latino full-time workers in the city are 2.5 to 3 times more likely than White full-time workers to live in poverty.


Thank you!
--The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

#ADayWithoutAWoman Highlights Racial and Gender-Based Discrimination

To add equity data to the national dialogue about growth and prosperity, every week the National Equity Atlas team posts a new chart from the Equity Atlas related to current events and issues.

Today is International Women’s Day and folks across the country are participating in the Women’s March #DayWithoutAWoman and the International Women’s Strike. Both efforts are focused around the economy—highlighting the lower wages, lack of job security, and greater vulnerability to harassment that many women and femmes face as well as the various forms of unpaid emotional labor expected of women and femmes on the job and at home.

In solidarity with #DayWithoutAWoman, this week’s chart highlights the racial and gender-based discrimination that continues to relegate women of color to the lower rungs of the economic system. The chart below shows median hourly wages of full-time wage and salary workers ages 25 to 64 by race/ethnicity and gender in the city of Oakland, California. Surprisingly, there is no gender wage gap if we do not break down the population by race: the median wage of all women in Oakland is $24/hour, the same as it is among all men. But when we factor in race, the largest gender wage gaps are among White workers. The median wage of White male workers in the city is $4/hour more than the median wage of White female workers.  But White women have a median wage that is $9/hour more than that of Black men and women and $16/hour more than the median wage of Latino men and women. The gender wage gaps are nonexistent among Black and Latino workers and Asian or Pacific Islander women and women of mixed/other races actually have a slightly higher median wage than their male counterparts. Importantly, women of color are more likely than men of color to have an associate’s degree or higher.

Policies to ensure living wages for all workers include raising the floor on low-wage work by increasing the minimum wage or enacting living-wage laws, requiring paid sick days, ending wage theft, strengthening workers’ rights to organize, and ensuring fair scheduling. Businesses in King County (Seattle), Washington are signing on to an initiative pledging to identify internal gender equity issues, share lessons with other employers, and implement best practices to close the gender wage gap.

To see how median wages vary by race/ethnicity and gender in your community, visit the National Equity Atlas and type in your city, region, or state, download and share the chart using #DayWithoutAWomen and #equitydata.

Chart of the Week: St. Louis Wins Court Battle to Raise Minimum Wage

To add equity data to the national dialogue about growth and prosperity, every week the National Equity Atlas team posts a new chart from the Equity Atlas related to current events and issues.

On Tuesday, in a victory for working families, the Missouri Supreme Court upheld the city of St. Louis’s authority to raise its minimum wage to $11/hour by 2018. The decision reverses the 2015 ruling of a lower court judge who sided with business groups that sued the City in response to the ordinance. The Missouri Supreme Court judge who presided over the case reiterated that the city law does not conflict with state minimum wage laws: “[The state law’s] purpose of protecting employees is served by setting a floor for minimum wages; nothing in the law suggests the state also wanted to protect employers by setting a maximum minimum wage.” Although this ruling is a win for St. Louis workers, a separate 2015 state law prevents any other local jurisdictions from passing their own minimum wage increases, regardless of the local cost of living.

To highlight the importance of local minimum wages, this week’s chart looks at the share of full-time workers with a family income below 100, 150, and 200 percent of poverty in the city of St. Louis. As the chart below shows, nearly 29 percent of Black full-time workers ages 25 to 64 live below 200 percent of poverty compared with 10 percent of White full-time workers. Even more strikingly, nearly 7 percent of Latino full-time workers live below the federal poverty line compared with just over 2 percent of White full time workers. In other words, Black and Latino full-time workers in the city are 2.5 to 3 times more likely than White full time workers to live in poverty.

In a statement, St. Louis Aldermanic President Lewis Reed said, “Today, the Supreme Court justified our rights as a city to make sure the people in our city can make a living wage. The people of St. Louis need to be able to afford groceries for their families and a roof over their heads.” According to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, a living wage for one adult with two children in St. Louis is just over $25/hour, but this victory puts the city on the right path to ensuring that all full-time workers earn family supporting wages.

To explore policies that lift workers out of poverty, check out the Agenda to Raise America’s Pay and the Tax Alliance for Economic Mobility’s brief on utilizing tax credits for low-income workers.

To see how working poverty varies for your city, region, or state, visit the National Equity Atlas, download the chart and share on social media using #equitydata.

National Equity Atlas Air Pollution Data Featured in The Seattle Times

In a recent Seattle Times op-ed, Peter Bloch Garcia, executive director of Latino Community Fund of Washington, and Tony Lee, co-chair of the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition in King County, used air pollution data from the National Equity Atlas to make the case for more equitable climate policies in Washington state.

"The National Equity Atlas illustrates that air-pollution exposure in the Asian Pacific Islander population is 34 points worse than it is for the white population in Washington state."

Urging state legislators to take action on climate and environmental justice, the authors explained that “While environmental justice champions at the federal level must play defense, Washington state should be on offense. We can rebalance uneven access to healthy neighborhoods and create green jobs.”

Visit the National Equity Atlas to learn more about our two air pollution indicators (Exposure index and Unequal burden) and explore the data for your region.

National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Equity Atlas Users,

The House of Representatives will soon bring its HUD funding bill for the remainder of FY17 to the floor for a vote, and Representative Gosar (Arizona-04) is likely to file an amendment that would dismantle the 2015 Affirmative Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule and eliminate federal support for disaggregated geospatial data. This data is critical for communities and advocates to understand, track, and address racial inequities related to housing, employment, transportation, and many other important causes. Please join the National Fair Housing Alliance, PolicyLink, the ACLU Nationwide, and the National Low Income Housing Coalition and sign this letter encouraging Congress to protect AFFH and oppose any efforts to block access to federal geospatial data.

Race, Place, and Jobs: Reducing Employment Inequality in America’s Metros
Earlier this month Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity featured a post from PolicyLink Senior Director Sarah Treuhaft, discussing how to build stronger and more inclusive regional economies by using neighborhood-targeted approaches to reduce racial inequities in employment. Read the full post and download the related brief here.

Addressing Racially Concentrated Unemployment: Lessons from New Orleans
U.S. unemployment rates have fallen across the board, but joblessness remains a pressing challenge for workers of color in many metros. Join the National Equity Atlas team on March 23 from 12:00 - 12:45 p.m. PT / 3:00 - 3:45 p.m. ET for a webinar discussion of our recent research brief, “Race, Place, and Jobs: Reducing Employment Inequality in America’s Metros,” and lessons from the Network for Economic Opportunity’s efforts to develop targeted solutions to unemployment in New Orleans. Register here.

Advancing Health Equity and Inclusive Growth in Sacramento County
On February 2, PolicyLink launched an engagement with the Healthy Sacramento Coalition to develop strategies to both promote racial equity and improve health outcomes for residents of Sacramento County. Founded in 2011 and supported by the Sierra Health Foundation, the Healthy Sacramento Coalition has grown to include more than 60 members actively working to address the social determinants of health. Sacramento is one of five cities where PolicyLink is working with partners to address racial inequities in health, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Coupling rigorous data analysis with the wisdom and experience of community leaders and residents, this engagement will yield a comprehensive equity profile that the Coalition will use to advance a focused policy agenda. The profile and report will be released in late April 2017.

Saving Federal Geospatial Databases and More Charts of the Week
Collecting and publishing disaggregated data is critical to advancing equitable growth locally, as illustrated in three recent charts of the week from PolicyLink Research Associate Ángel Ross.

  • The latest chart of the week, “Save AFFH and Federal Geospatial Databases,” highlights the importance of spatial data and the AFFH rule by showing two maps of unemployment in Memphis, Tennessee. The AFFH rule provides local jurisdictions with spatial data to ensure that federal dollars go towards making all communities neighborhoods of opportunity.
  • "Pittsburgh Mayor Peduto Signs Five Executive Orders," our February 17 chart of the week, looks at renter housing burden in the city of Pittsburgh.
  • Finally, our February 7 chart of the week highlights immigrants’ contribution to growth in Cincinnati – one of the newest cities to defy the president’s executive order on immigration and declare itself a sanctuary city. Immigrants in Cincinnati make up less than 5 percent of the population but have accounted for all of the city’s population growth since 1990.

Thank you!

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

Chart of the Week: Save AFFH and Federal Geospatial Databases

To add equity data to the national dialogue about growth and prosperity, every week the National Equity Atlas team posts a new chart from the Equity Atlas related to current events and issues.

Last month, we wrote about the dangers of the proposed Local Zoning Decisions Protection Act of 2017, and this week we heard that the House of Representatives may bring its HUD funding bill for the remainder of FY17 to the floor for a vote next week. Representative Paul Gosar (Arizona-04) will likely file an amendment that adopts some or all of the language in the bill.

The National Fair Housing Alliance, PolicyLink, the ACLU, and the National Low Income Housing Coalition have coordinated to prepare a sign on letter in opposition to Rep. Gosar’s expected amendment. CLICK HERE to read and sign on to the letter, and please share with your local, state, and national networks! The deadline to sign on is Tuesday, February 28.

As letter describes, even though the Fair Housing Act has been on the books for nearly a half century, cities, counties and states that receive federal funds for housing and community development had little guidance about how to fulfill the fair housing obligations to which they agreed in exchange for receiving those funds, and few tools for doing so. The 2015 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule responds to requests from HUD grantees for greater guidance and more support in furthering fair housing, as well as recommendations made by the Government Accountability Office in a 2010 report based on its review of HUD’s fair housing oversight.

This week’s chart highlights the importance of spatial data and this rule in particular by showing two maps of unemployment in Memphis, Tennessee. The map on the left shows white unemployment by neighborhood and the map on the right shows unemployment for people of color by neighborhood. The darker blue census tracts represent areas where the unemployment rate is more than 20 percent. On the white unemployment map, there are only a few neighborhoods where unemployment is higher than 20 percent but on the people of color map, there are several clustered throughout the city. Racial differences in employment result from differences in education, training, and experience as well as barriers to employment for workers of color such as English language ability, immigration status, criminal records, lack of transportation access, and racial discrimination and bias among employers and institutions. The AFFH rule provides local jurisdictions with spatial data like this to ensure that federal dollars go towards making all communities neighborhoods of opportunity.

Please consider signing on the letter and sharing it with your local, state, and national networks and share on social media why you oppose amendments to the T-HUD bill that would repeal HUD’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulation, require HUD to use its limited resources to duplicate previous consultations with state and local governments about how to fulfill their fair housing obligations, and block public access to government geo-spatial data.

To see how unemployment varies in your city, region, or state, visit the National Equity Atlas and share the map of your community using #equitydata.

Chart of the Week: Pittsburgh Mayor Peduto Signs Five Executive Orders on Affordable Housing

To add equity data to the national dialogue about growth and prosperity, every week the National Equity Atlas team posts a new chart from the Equity Atlas related to current events and issues.

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto signed five executive orders last week aimed at preserving and expanding affordable housing in the city. The Affordable Housing Task Force, which developed a list of housing policies the City could enact to prevent the displacement of long-time residents and to mitigate the effects of the rapid development occurring throughout the city, informed the executive orders.

After decades of depopulation and a stagnant economy, Pittsburgh is coming back. Once dominated by the steel industry, the city is now becoming a knowledge and technology-driven economy. Young college graduates are moving to Pittsburgh and enjoying the emerging startup culture and opportunities arising from the redevelopment of the city — but many longtime residents and local businesses are not benefiting from Pittsburgh's resurgence. Some neighborhoods are gentrifying, rents and home prices are rising, and families are moving out of the city to the suburbs to find affordable housing options. At the same time, in this emerging market, other neighborhoods continue to await long-needed reinvestment.

Mayor Peduto's executive orders are a good first step to ensuring that everyone in Pittsburgh, especially long-standing residents, can benefit from the city's development. This week’s chart looks at renter housing burden in the city of Pittsburgh. Renter housing burden refers to the share of renter households spending more than 30 percent of household income on housing costs. Approximately 50 percent of renters in the city of Pittsburgh are cost-burdened. But, the burden is experienced differently among different racial groups. Nearly 54 percent of Black renter households are cost-burdened, compared with 47 percent of White renter households. Households of color are also significantly more likely than White households to be renters. Only 32 percent of households of color are owner-occupied compared with 56 percent of White households.

Housing is one critical component of a strong equitable development agenda. Policies that preserve and expand affordable housing options and ensure that all residents can stay in their community and benefit from redevelopment are critical to the health of a city's economy. To learn more about the work of PolicyLink and Pittsburgh partners to advance an equitable development in the city, check out “The Path to an All-In Pittsburgh.”

To see how renter and homeowner housing burden varies in your city, region, or state, visit the National Equity Atlas, type in your community, and share the chart using #equitydata.

Chart of the Week: Cincinnati Becomes a Sanctuary City

To add equity data to the national dialogue about growth and prosperity, every week the National Equity Atlas team posts a new chart from the Equity Atlas related to current events and issues.

Immigration is a significant driver of population growth nationwide, yet the new administration continues to adopt hostile polices targeting immigrants and refugees — and the cities that seek to protect them. Just two weeks ago, the president signed an executive order blocking federal funds to sanctuary cities—jurisdictions that direct local law enforcement not to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with deportations. There’s no standard definition of sanctuary cities and there’s a spectrum of local law enforcement cooperation with immigration authorities, ranging from notifying ICE when someone in custody will be released to actively enforcing civil immigration laws. Despite the new president’s threats, several mayors of “sanctuary cities” are doubling down on their sanctuary status and vowing to protect all residents, including those without documentation.

This week’s chart highlights immigrants’ contribution to growth in one of the newest cities to defy the president and declare itself a “sanctuary city”: Cincinnati. Immigrants make up less than 5 percent of the Cincinnati population, but have accounted for all of the city’s population growth since 1990. As the chart below shows, from 2000 to 2014, the U.S.-born population of Cincinnati declined by over 35,000 people while the immigrant population added 1,200 new residents. Cincinnati was one of 20 cities (among the 100 largest cities in the country) where immigrants accounted for 100% of net population growth during that time.

It’s important to note that not all immigrants are undocumented or refugees, but it’s not uncommon for families and households to be mixed-status—meaning some members of a household or family may have documentation while others do not. Even though the executive orders thus far have targeted undocumented people as well as refugees from seven majority-Muslim countries, this type of rhetoric, surveillance, and enforcement has cascading impacts on all immigrants and people of color.

In addition to Cincinnati, the city of Birmingham, Alabama, adopted a “welcoming city” policy, and will not require proof of citizenship when granting business licenses. San Francisco has taken an even more proactive stance and filed suit against the executive order, charging that it violates the states’ rights provisions of the Constitution.

The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) has explained that “local jurisdictions have no legal obligation to assist with civil immigration enforcement, which is the responsibility of the federal government.” For a list of policies local jurisdictions can adopt, such as eliminating the use of local and statewide gang databases and the importance of county-level policies, check out “Expanding Sanctuary” and “Searching for Sanctuary.”

To see how immigrants have contributed to growth in your city, region, or state, visit the National Equity Atlas, type in your community, and share the chart using #equitydata.

National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Equity Atlas Users,
 
The new year has brought a whirlwind of leadership and policy changes – including many that place equitable growth policies and the data needed to inform them at risk. As updated demographic projections to 2050 reveal, America’s demographic shift toward a majority people-of-color country is a long-term trend that will continue regardless of political and policy sways. This means that the inclusion of communities of color will remain central to our economic fate as a nation, and your efforts to advance racial economic inclusion and opportunity are more important than ever.
 
We hope that our data and policy ideas help you protect, defend, and innovate to make equitable growth the reality in your communities.
 
Can a Targeted Jobs Strategy Reduce Racial Inequities in Unemployment in Your Metro?
Inspired by our maps showing neighborhood unemployment by community racial/ethnic composition, the Atlas team analyzed the relationship between racial and spatial inequality in employment across America’s largest 150 metros. Our latest brief, Race, Place, and Jobs: Reducing Employment Inequality in America’s Metros, shows how in several regions with large racial gaps in employment such as Youngstown and Milwaukee, unemployed workers of color tend to live in a small number of neighborhoods. In these places, neighborhood-targeted workforce development and job access strategies have the potential to increase racial equity and reduce disparities at the regional level, building stronger and more inclusive regional economies.
 
Beyond a People-of-Color Majority: U.S. Demographic Projections to 2050
The United States is projected to become a majority-people-of-color nation in 2044, but what does population growth look like beyond that year? Join the National Equity Atlas team on February 15 from 12-12:30 p.m. PT / 3-3:30 p.m. ET for a webinar discussion of the changing demographics of the U.S. and a live demo of four indicators that now include updated demographic projections to 2050: “People of Color,” “Race/ethnicity,” “Population growth rates”, and “Contribution to growth: People of color.” Register for the webinar here. In the meantime, PERE data analyst Pamela Stephens shares six key demographic trends to follow.
 
#SavetheData and More Charts of the Week
Collecting and publishing disaggregated data is critical to advancing equitable growth locally, and our three recent charts of the week from PolicyLink research associate Ángel Ross underscore this point.

  • Our January 11 “Location Matters for Health” chart illustrates how adult asthma and diabetes vary by race and place in the neighboring regions of Deltona and Orlando, Florida.
  • We joined the National Fair Housing Alliance in thanking President Obama for his support of fair housing and shared this #FairHousingThanksObama chart to support the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule (AFFH) as a tool to address inequities in access to opportunity.
  • Finally, we produced this #SavetheData chart to call attention to the very real danger that federal data disaggregation tools — like those used to track health disparities and enforce fair housing standards — will be defunded and eliminated.

 

Thank you!
 
The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

Looking (Slightly) Beyond 2044: Six Reasons To Be Interested In The 2050 Demographic Projections

The National Equity Atlas was developed as a tool to measure and track demographic change and equity across America's communities.  By 2044, the nation is projected to be majority people of color, yet communities of color face persistent barriers to accessing the resources and opportunities they need to reach their full potential. These inequities are not only bad for the people being left behind: they threaten our collective economic future. As economist Lawrence Summers put it "as people of color become a majority of the population, the failure to end their economic exclusion means the failure of the American economy."

This month, the Equity Atlas team added updated demographic projections data to the Atlas through the year 2050, past the 2044 turning point. Our projections come from Woods & Poole Economics, a highly respected source used by many government agencies and researchers. These new projections can be found in the "People of Color," "Race/ethnicity," "Population growth rates", and "Contribution to growth: People of color" indicators and are available for counties, regions, and states. Here are six key demographic trends that deserve our attention:

  1. The population of color will continue to grow rapidly between 2040 and 2050. By 2050, 53 percent of the total population will be people of color, up from 48 percent in 2040. Between 2030 and 2040, 132 counties will become majority people of color. And between 2040 and 2050, 118 additional counties will join them, for a total of 737 majority people-of-color counties nationwide.


     
  2. Despite this shift, for most of these counties, Whites will remain the largest racial group. Only ten counties that will become majority people of color between 2040 and 2050 will experience a shift in their largest racial group.



     
  3. Most people will live in majority people of color counties in 2050. By 2050, 56 percent of Americans will live in majority people of color counties. Even though just 23 percent of counties will be majority people of color, most of the population will live in those counties.



     
  4. A handful of counties will revert back to being majority white. In 2050, three counties that are currently majority people of color are expected to become majority white – San Francisco, CA; New York, NY (Manhattan); and San Juan, Utah. As the country becomes majority people of color, nearly a quarter of all counties will experience growth in their White populations. About one in ten of these counties with growing White populations are majority people of color. However, these three counties stand out as counties that will actually shift to becoming majority white.  In New York County (Manhattan), this shift will happen as two major groups: Latinos and African Americans decline at rates outpacing White growth.



     
  5. Among the counties that will become majority people of color by 2050, many counties will still experience population decline for some of their communities of color. This phenomenon is most common with the Black population. Nationally, the Black population is expected to remain stable, growing from 12.2 to 12.7 percent between 2010 and 2050. But there is wide variation across counties, and 76 counties that will become majority people of color by 2050 will also lose Black population. Among these counties, Denver, CO will experience the largest percentage loss (26 percent) of its Black population as it moves to becoming majority people of color.





     
  6. Latinos and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) will drive growth among communities of color. Across all counties, 244 counties' Latino populations will double between 2010 and 2050, while 224 counties' AAPI populations will double. 153 will switch from being majority white or having a white plurality (the largest group in the absence of a majority) to majority or plurality Latino; 10 counties that are currently majority or plurality white will be majority or plurality AAPI.


The updated demographic projections through 2050 analyzed here underscore how America will continue to grow more diverse and less White for the foreseeable future. Dozens of indicators of economic inclusion, workforce readiness, and community connectedness in the National Equity Atlas reveal persistent racial inequities. Regardless of political sways and even immigration policy over the short-term, the truth is that communities of color are central to our economic fate as a nation, and investing in people of color and removing barriers to their full participation in our economy and democracy remains an urgent national priority.

Chart of the Week: Why We Need Data Broken Down By Race/Ethnicity

To add equity data to the national dialogue about growth and prosperity, every week the National Equity Atlas team posts a new chart from the Equity Atlas related to current events and issues.

UPDATE 2/24/17: The House of Representatives may bring its HUD funding bill for the remainder of FY17 to the floor for a vote next week. Rep. Paul Gosar will likely file an amendment that adopts some or all of the language in Local Zoning Decisions Protection Act of 2017. The National Fair Housing Alliance, PolicyLink, the ACLU, and the National Low Income Housing Coalition have coordinated to prepare a sign on letter in opposition to Rep. Gosar’s expected amendment. CLICK HERE to read and sign on to the letter, and please share with your local, state, and national networks! The deadline to sign on is Tuesday, February 28.

Just a month in the new administration, there are growing concerns among data analysts, researchers, and advocates about the preservation of federal databases, particularly those that disaggregate by race/ethnicity. Earlier this month, Representative Gosar (Arizona-04) introduced the “Local Zoning and Property Rights Protection Act of 2017” and Senator Lee (Utah) introduced the Senate Companion version. The bill is a general attack on the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule, which seeks to reduce racial segregation and concentrated poverty while expanding opportunity for all, but more specifically, the bill is an attack on data itself. Section 3 states: “no Federal funds may be used to design, build, maintain, utilize, or provide access to a Federal database of geospatial information on community racial disparities or disparities in access to affordable housing.”

Under the guise of “protecting local zoning,” this bill strips the ability of local officials to access consistent data about their jurisdictions. This bill goes beyond attacking HUD for requiring recipients of federal funding to address racial disparities in opportunity. It seeks to prevent local officials from even knowing about those disparities in the first place. It is an attack on the ability of local officials to advance effective, data-driven policy solutions.

To call attention to the very real danger that federal data disaggregation tools — like those used to enforce fair housing standards or track health disparities — will be defunded and eliminated, this week’s chart looks at neighborhood poverty in Arizona over time. Without disaggregated local data, planners and decision makers would only be able to see that overall the share of the population living in high-poverty neighborhoods (defined as census tracts with a poverty rate of 40 percent or higher) in the state more than doubled from 4.4 percent to 9.8 percent from 2000 to 2014. But it is clear that not all populations are equally impacted by concentrated poverty in Arizona. The White population is the least likely to live in concentrated poverty: less than four in every 100 White Arizona residents live in a high-poverty neighborhood. Native Americans, on the other hand, are nearly 11 times more likely than Whites to live in high-poverty neighborhoods. Latinos are nearly five times as likely as Whites to live in high-poverty neighborhoods. Poverty looks different for White people than for people of color because people of color are significantly more likely to live in high-poverty neighborhoods even if they are not poor. This not only highlights a long history of federally supported racial residential segregation, but it also underscores the importance of informed data-driven planning and policymaking.

Despite the threats to the AFFH rule and tool that arms local decision makers with the data to make informed decisions, some states and localities, including California and Philadelphia are vowing to push forward with their efforts to further fair housing. California Department of Housing and Community Development Director, Ben Metcalf, said in a recent article, with or without the federal fair housing rule, the State of California will continue to approach work through the AFFH rule because it furthers outcomes the state values: “ensuring that folks growing up poor in California’s communities have a shot of accessing the middle class and avoiding some of the negative consequences associated with segregated communities or neighborhoods of highly concentrated poverty.” Similarly, Philadelphia completed the nation’s first AFFH plan and the city’s director of planning and development promised: “If it isn’t important at the national level, it’ll still be important at the local level and will still inform a lot of the decisions we make.”

To see how neighborhood poverty varies in your city, region, or state, visit the National Equity Atlas, type in your community, and post the chart on social media using #equitydata and #SaveTheData. The data can also serve as a talking point when contacting local elected officials, local government staff, members of Congress, businesses, developers, and other decision makers. Include examples (like Philadelphia) of how AFFH is beneficial to the community. If you’re already using Equity Atlas, HUD, or Census data to guide your organizing or policymaking efforts, consider writing a letter and op-ed in support of the AFFH rule and other federal data disaggregation efforts.

For responses and reactions to the bill and threats to fair housing, check out the statement from the National Low Income Housing Coalition and a New York Times article on the tough battle ahead.

Chart of the Week: #FairHousingThanksObama

To add equity data to the national dialogue about growth and prosperity, every week the National Equity Atlas team posts a new chart from the Equity Atlas related to current events and issues.

Today from 2pm to 3pm, the National Fair Housing Alliance is sending President Obama “thank you” messages over Twitter for his unprecedented support of fair housing. Specifically, NFHA is using the tag #FairHousingThanksObama to highlight his accomplishments such as being the first presidential administration to use disparate impact to enforce the Fair Housing Act and for urging the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to finalize the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule (AFFH).

This week’s chart highlights why the AFFH rule, currently under threat, is needed to help cities, counties, regions, states, and housing authorities expand housing choices, connect residents to employment, transportation, quality education, and healthy food and foster inclusive communities free of discrimination. As the chart below shows, the Black population in the New Orleans region is significantly more likely to live in high poverty neighborhoods —  nearly eight times more likely than Whites.  Such high-poverty neighborhoods are often lacking access to assets which enhance opportunity.  The AFFH rule helps jurisdictions identify barriers to opportunity by measuring neighborhoods’ proximity — or lack thereof — to high-performing schools, public transit, local labor markets, healthy environments and other key community assets.

 

chart-2014-percent-living-in-high-poverty

 

Last year, the City of New Orleans and the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) became one of the first of 20 jurisdictions to submit a joint Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH) plan to HUD. The plan's development was guided by equity, as defined by PolicyLink: "just and fair inclusion into a society in which all can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential." To learn more about the New Orleans effort, which included unprecedented coordination between local institutions, residents, housing, transportation, and health advocates, and community organizations, read this article from America’s Tomorrow.

To see rates of neighborhood poverty in your community and how your community ranks among the largest 150 metro areas, visit the National Equity Atlas, type in your metro area, and share the charts using #equitydata.

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