View Research by Author - Lynette A. Rawlings

Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/LynetteRawlings

Despite substantial progress since passage of the Fair Housing Act four decades ago, neighborhoods remain highly segregated by race and ethnicity. This paper summarizes existing research evidence on both the costs of segregation and the potential benefits of neighborhood diversity. It uses decennial census data to show that a growing share of US neighborhoods are racially and ethnically diverse, but that low-income African Americans in particular remain highly concentrated in predominantly minority neighborhoods. Because the dynamics that sustain segregation today are complex, strategies for overcoming them must address not only discrimination, but information gaps, affordability constraints, prejudice, and fear.

For the past two decades the United States has been transforming distressed public housing communities, with three ambitious goals: replace distressed developments with healthy mixed-income communities; help residents relocate to affordable housing, often in the private market; and empower former public housing families toward economic self-sufficiency. The transformation has focused on deconcentrating poverty, but not on the underlying role of racial segregation in creating these distressed communities. In Public Housing and the Legacy of Segregation, scholars and public housing officials assess whether—and how—public housing policies can simultaneously address the problems of poverty and race.

Financial assistance from family and friends is an important resource for lower-income families dealing with difficult economic circumstances. This fact examines what percent of respondents in low-income neighborhoods gave financial help, either to family and friends or to other people they live with, in the last 12 months. The percentage of respondents who gave financial help is high 39 percent, with substantial variation within immigrant and U.S.-born respondent groups by race and ethnicity in the proportion that gave and where the assistance was sent

In the second fact we examine what percent of respondents in low-income neighborhoods received financial help in the last 12 months from families and friends or from other people they live with. Overall, 25 percent of respondents received financial help from families and friends. This figure differs substantially by nativity. Moreover, the patterns of receiving help from family and friends are fairly similar across race and ethnic groups for U.S.-born respondents, whereas the percent of immigrant respondents who received help from family and friends differed sizably among region of origin.

How households cope with financial emergencies depends largely on the resources at their disposal. Differential access to good financial options affects how much households pay for credit in a time of need, which can vary substantially. Using data from the Making Connections Cross-Site Survey (2002–2004), we examine how households with incomes over $30,000 and those with incomes below $30,000 would respond in a financial emergency and find that in general, higher-income households were more likely to use conventional methods while lower-income households were more likely to use alternative (and often more expensive) methods to pay unexpected bills.

The paper explores the financial well-being and economic integration of immigrant groups compared with native-born minorities and whites in vulnerable urban neighborhoods. Among the main findings from the analysis is that immigrants and native minorities in the neighborhoods we examine face similar types of economic difficulties. However, after controlling for citizenship, English proficiency, educational attainment, and having a driver’s license and a reliable car, many of the economic disadvantages disappear for immigrant groups, but not for native-born minorities. These findings suggest that even in tough neighborhoods, the potential for economic integration of immigrants is strong.

During the 1990s, the Department of Housing and Urban Development launched three rigorous research demonstrations testing alternative strategies for helping low-income families escape the isolation and distress of high-poverty, central-city communities. All three demonstrations were carefully designed to include rigorous controls and systematic data collection so that their implementation and impacts could be systematically evaluated. And all three are now generating provocative results that offer new insights for ongoing program experimentation and policy development. We draw ten broad lessons--including lessons about the potential for success, about the realities families face, about implementing complex strategies, and about obstacles to success. [View the corresponding report]

During the 1990s, the Department of Housing and Urban Development launched three rigorous research demonstrations testing alternative strategies for helping low-income families escape the isolation and distress of high-poverty, central-city communities. All three demonstrations were carefully designed to include rigorous controls and systematic data collection so that their implementation and impacts could be systematically evaluated. And all three are now generating provocative results that offer new insights for ongoing program experimentation and policy development. We draw ten broad lessons--including lessons about the potential for success, about the realities families face, about implementing complex strategies, and about obstacles to success. [View the corresponding brief]

This research brief, the third in the "Neighborhood Change in Urban America" series, analyzes changes from 1990 to 2000 in the racial composition of 69 large metro areas nationwide. It explores increases in the number of racially integrated neighborhoods, as well as the extent to which these neighborhoods are stable or transitional. The analysis offers grounds for cautious optimism about the prospects for stable black-white integration in city and suburban neighborhoods.

This paper presents preliminary findings from a larger study that examines whether targeted industry employment and workforce development interventions -- such as sector employment initiatives -- might improve the quality of employment for welfare recipients. The study explores the link between pre and post-PRWORA employment in certain industries and the quality of jobs held by former welfare recipients. The goal is to determine if the economic well-being of former welfare recipients might be improved if welfare-to-work efforts targeted specific industries for employment initiatives for welfare recipients.

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