Neighborhood Conditions Affect Long-Term Outcomes for Low-Income Residents

Rising economic segregation is forcing low-income Americans into enclaves that lack the resources and amenities that their middle- and upper-class counterparts take for granted, according to a new report from the U.S. Partnership on Mobility from Poverty. How Neighborhoods Affect the Social and Economic Mobility of Their Residents finds, for instance, that low-income families lack access to quality public schools, with the average low-income student enrolled in a school that scores at the 42nd percentile on state exams. Long commutes and lack of transit options in low-income communities also mean that residents are often can’t work the same hours as their peers and are unable to achieve equal workplace success, according to the report.