The Makeup of Philadelphia’s Poor and Initiatives to Lift Them Out of Poverty
As Philadelphia’s population has grown, poverty in the city has been evolving in ways that reflect the changing makeup of the city in terms of race, ethnicity and age. In comparison to the other 10 largest cities in the nation, Philadelphia’s impoverished are increasingly Hispanic and of working age. In fact, Philadelphia’s Hispanic poverty rate is the highest among both the nation’s most populous cities and its poorest large cities.
A Pew Charitable Trust study written by Octavia Howell showed that in 2016 the poverty rate among the city’s black residents is second-highest at 30.8 percent, which is higher than eight of the nation’s 10 largest cities. In the past decade, the share of the city’s overall population that consists of working-age adults has grown significantly. In 2016 nearly a third of poor adults in Philadelphia reported that they were working.
For the most part, families live in poverty when adults are unable to work because of infirmity, age or family responsibility; when they choose not to work or when they fail to earn enough money to get above the poverty threshold. Many in Philadelphia are hindered by an economy that largely generates two kinds of jobs: low-paid service jobs that do not support a family or high-salary positions that require skills and training that more poor people lack or have a difficult time obtaining. With many poor residents unable to find quality work that will lift them out of poverty, many employment opportunities have moved outside of Philadelphia into the surrounding suburbs in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Pew’s study also showed that, unlike some of the other largest cities, Philadelphia’s poor are highly concentrated within the city itself. Within Philadelphia, the black and Hispanic poor tend to live in areas of concentrated poverty, while poor whites tend to be less concentrated within the city limits. For example, 29 percent of the region’s poor whites live within the city limits, compared to 57 percent of poor Hispanics and 69 percent of poor blacks. Some of the factors that influence where the poor live in Philadelphia include transportation and housing costs.
Philadelphia’s exceptionally high poverty rate has been a main focus of attention for the city as poverty is a heavy burden on individuals, families and the community as a whole. High poverty rates diminish tax revenue, place added demand on public services and undercut economic growth. After 50 years of population decline, Philadelphia’s population has grown, and with that growth the poverty population has grown as well.
While the current climate of poverty in Philadelphia may seem bleak, there are many organizations that are leading the way in lifting Philadelphians our of poverty. Shared Prosperity is backboned by the Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity (CEO). This city initiative is led by Cassie Haynes, formerly the executive director of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association. While Haynes’s educational background has been in law and public health, her professional work has mainly been in strategy, communication and systems implementation in the sports world.
CEO aims to reduce poverty via workforce development, benefits access, early learning, housing security and economic security. In a January 2018 interview with Generosity Philly, Haynes says the initiative is about engaging community-based organizations and likeminded government agencies. CEO convenes stakeholders from the government, philanthropy, academia, business and resident communities to achieve a common understanding of poverty in Philadelphia and everyone’s role in the situation. Haynes says her role with CEO and Shared Prosperity is to focus more on policies than programs and evaluate the strategy of Shared Prosperity in order to move the initiative forward and lift Philadelphians out of poverty.
