Csi One Region - 2 Pager Talking Points

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One Region: Promoting Prosperity Across Race New York City’s metropolitan region is in trouble. Housing costs, mortgage foreclosures and job losses are too high. Most feel the pinch, but communities of color are hit first and hardest and receive the least support to recover. This impacts the regional economy as a whole. The Center for Social Inclusion’s new report, One Region: Promoting Prosperity Across Race, finds:

The New York region is growing and becoming more diverse, yet regional opportunity is not equitable • • • •

The region is growing more diverse, as the White population plateaus and most new residents are Latino, Asian, or Black. Despite this, isolation of people of color continues, threatening the regional economy, social cohesion and family well-being. The foreign-born population grew by 11% since 2000 and accounts for a majority of the region’s new residents. However, Immigrants generally live in low-opportunity neighborhoods. Black and Latino immigrants are the worst off. New York is the fourth-most segregated region in the United States. Poverty is racially identifiable— people of color disproportionately live in low-opportunity neighborhoods with poor-quality housing, failing schools, environmental hazards, and few good jobs.

Housing opportunity is shrinking • •

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Salaries are not keeping up with rising housing costs and affordable housing is disappearing, affecting communities of color most acutely. Between 2000 and 2006 alone, almost 40% of affordable stock, or 500,000 units, have been lost across the region. Homeownership opportunities among Latino, Black and Asian communities are severely lacking made worse by the disproportionate impact of the foreclosure crisis. In New York City African American borrowers were twelve times more likely and Latino borrowers almost eight times more likely than their White neighbors to receive a higher-cost home purchase loan. People of color do not live near good jobs, nor are near good transportation that can connect them to jobs.

Educational opportunity is shrinking • • • • •

Educational opportunity gaps are widening and threatening the region’s strength. Though communities of color are hit the hardest, these gaps indicate a broken education system that also harms poor Whites. State budget cuts threaten to undermine recent victories in state courts for more equitable funding. Black enrollment in New York City’s elite high schools dropped by 50% between 1994 and 2005. Only 66% of Latinos, 81% of Blacks, and 84% of Asians in the region have high school diplomas, compared to 91% of Whites.

Entrepreneurship opportunities are not well supported • • • •

A lack of adequate financial institutions in many communities of color limits economic mobility and homeownership opportunity. Many people of color owned businesses are at risk of displacement due to development policies, which are neither equitable nor sustainable. Blacks (27%) and Latinos (29%) are more than twice as likely as Whites (12%) to work in the lowpaying service sector. For every $1 earned by a White household, Latino households earn just over 50 cents, and Black households earn fewer than 60 cents per White dollar. The wealthiest 5% in the region earn over 25% of the income, while only 10.8% of earnings go to the poorest 40%. This is the widest gap among the country’s 50-largest metropolitan areas.

One Region: Promoting Prosperity Across Race

65 Broadway, Suite 1800, New York NY 10006 | (212) 248-2785 www.centerforsocialinclusion.org

The health of communities is threatened by environment hazards and the lack of health infrastructure • • • • •

Social and economic inequalities drive environmental degradation and lessen environmental protections for everyone. People of color live closest to environmental hazards, making them the most at risk to asthma, obesity, and diabetes. Blacks are four times more likely to be hospitalized for asthma treatment than Whites in parts of New Jersey because of poor air quality, poor housing quality, and poor access to healthcare. People of color live in areas with weak healthcare infrastructure, including hospitals and a thriving network of healthcare professionals, and are least likely to have health insurance coverage. The lack of access communities have to healthy and affordable food is making them sick, contributing to high rates of obesity among children in high-poverty, communities of color.

Principles for equitable opportunity-building policy strategies • • • • • • •

Policy decisions should seek to ensure that those in low opportunity areas benefit equitably and meaningfully. Policy decisions should seek to connect those in low opportunity areas to opportunities that exist in high opportunity areas. Policy decisions should seek to build opportunities, particularly in the form of infrastructure and access to capital, in low-opportunity areas. Policy decisions and their implementation must be monitored for impact on low-opportunity and high opportunity areas. When low-opportunity areas are not benefiting sufficiently or are carrying the burdens disproportionately, policies and their implementation should be corrected. Policy decisions should be analyzed for their impact on a range of opportunities (e.g., building affordable housing is important, but if it is not built near jobs, it will not also increase job access). Policy directions should recognize the need cooperate across political boundaries, since the region is an economic and social unit, despite being made up of many municipalities and several states. Policy decisions and their implementation should recognize differences by race, gender and class (e.g., construction jobs disproportionately benefit men who are white. Stimulating construction jobs does not guarantee that women of all races or men of color will benefit.).

Policy Directions for an equitable New York region •

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Create incentives for opportunity-based housing o Leverage the low income housing tax credit (LIHTC) program o Establish mandatory inclusionary zoning o Establish housing trust funds Make communities of color partners in the regional economy o Support small businesses in communities of color and immigrant communities o Support Stimulus projects that empower and develop workforces in communities of color o Establish land use policies to protect and empower residents Develop fiscal policies that build regional opportunity for those in greatest need o Invest in education infrastructure o Invest in transit infrastructure Invest in healthier communities o Preserve and support existing healthcare infrastructure, including hospitals and a network of healthcare professionals, in under-served communities o Increase fresh food options in underserved communities

One Region: Promoting Prosperity Across Race