Moeser’s An Overview of Poverty, Race, and Jurisdiction in Metropolitan Richmond
Fascinating numbers in John V. Moeser’s An Overview of Poverty, Race, and Jurisdiction in Metropolitan Richmond (PDF): Richmond contains the densest concentration of public housing south of NYC; 40% of all residents residing in East End Richmond live in poverty; 72% of residents in Census 301 (Gilpin Court) live in poverty.
It makes sense that things were getting better overall between ’90 and ’00, but that’s a mighty big drop in Charles City – what happened there?
@Jennifer, I don’t have any numbers to back me up, but my hunch would be this: Charles City County had a very low population in 1990 that included a sizable population of low income residents. Between 1990 and 2000 there was likely an influx of suburban development of middle class or higher residents(sort of like Goochland but probably not as many people) that increased the population significantly on a percentage basis which therefore decreased the percentage of population living in poverty without substantially reducing the actual number of people living in poverty. Sometimes these relative percentage comparisons can seem odd when you don’t know what’s going on in the background with general population trends.
Does the poverty level income of $22,017 for a family of 4 (stated in Moeser’s figures) include the dollar amount/value of outside benefits like housing, food and medical assistance? If not, have statistics been compiled which give a dollar amount/value for these benefits and where might such information be found? Difficult to establish a definition of ‘poverty’ when wages, but not additional benefits, are considered.
Does anyone have the dates on when the government housing in the East End was built, preferably when each individual “court” was built?
I have always wondered.
Thanks…
Public Housing in Richmond
http://chpn.net/news/2009/08/23/public-housing-in-the-east-end_8409/
HA!
Thanks, John. I even commented in that thread.
That was a real long year ago… :)
The 2nd slide shows a dense area of poverty in Goochland- that’s the jail.
Matthew: There are a number of trailer parks off Route six just west of both of the jails (the work farm and the women’s jail) in Goochland, too. There are pockets of poverty in Goochland, and there are an embarrassing number of people in Goochland who do not have running water in their homes.
csb: you are right. However, they’re not enough to push the concentration of poverty up to 20%+. Without the jail, that census tract wouldn’t be colored in.