After poverty reduction: trajectories of U.S. urban neighborhoods that escaped high poverty during the 1990s

Abstract

Based on the Neighborhood Change Database, this study tracks U.S. urban neighborhoods that escaped the high-poverty category during the poverty reduction trend in the 1990s and explores their poverty transition patterns in the subsequent decade. Escaped neighborhoods exhibit a significant propensity to relapse back into high poverty. This study found several neighborhood characteristics to be associated with a neighborhood’s ability to resist poverty relapse, such as high educational attainment and residential stability of the inhabitants. Homeownership is also found to be a neighborhood stabilizer, but its effect varies by specific racial and ethnic groups.