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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Shocking poverty survey provides Indianapolis reality check

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Let me tell you how bad the economic situation is for some in Indianapolis.

A month ago, the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey (ACS) released income and poverty data for Indianapolis’ neighborhoods.

Census doesn’t define neighborhoods by zip codes, the geography some Indianapolis leaders have become dangerously obsessed with. Instead Census uses another common neighborhood geography – Census Tracts.

The 2013 Census ACS of Indy’s 224 Census Tracts, compiled between 2009 and 2013, reveals a disturbing picture of the city/county’s low incomes and high poverty.

You’ll find Indy’s lowest median household incomes and highest rates of poverty concentrated in neighborhoods up to four miles east and up to three miles southeast of Downtown Indianapolis.

Pockets of extreme low household incomes and high poverty exist in areas of Wayne, Decatur, Perry, Lawrence, Washington and Center Townships.

The Census ACS data is most damning regarding our African-American community.

Example: 1-in-9 African-Americans in Indianapolis/Marion County live in a neighborhood where over 50 percent of the population lives below the poverty level. And of all African-Americans in Indy living in poverty, 25 percent live in neighborhoods where the poverty rate is above 50 percent.

In 54 of Indianapolis’ 224 Census Tracts, African-American Median Household Income is below $20,000 yearly. In 27 of the city/county’s Census Tracts, African-American poverty exceeds 50 percent.

Broadly speaking, the neighborhoods with the lowest median household incomes and highest poverty for African-Americans stretches from Martindale/Brightwood, through Brookside Park into many near Eastside neighborhoods as far east as Emerson and Washington.

High poverty, low-income areas for Blacks also include Southside neighborhoods from Twin Aire to Garfield Park and Bethel Park.

Pockets of Black high poverty and low household income are found in the Riverside, UNWA, Mapleton/Fall Creek, Haughville, West Indy and Lyndhurst neighborhoods. Also on the far eastside around 38th/42nd/Post and Mitthoeffer and neighborhoods just east of I-465 between 38th and 56th.

If you think some neighborhoods with the highest Black poverty rates are where Blacks are in the majority, think again.

The 2013 Census ACS documented eleven census tracts/neighborhoods where Black poverty is between 70 to 100 percent! All of these neighborhoods are white-majority ones, where whites have household incomes substantially below the median for the city/county as whole.

The 2013 Census ACS reveals the obscene, stark income disparity between non-Hispanic white households and African-American households living in Indianapolis’ growing downtown residential areas.

The highest white/Black income disparity occurs in the neighborhood bounded by Alabama Street, 21st Street, Monon Trail and I-65. Median white household income here is $78,929; while Black median household income is $22,614. A difference/disparity of $56,136!

The next highest disparity is the downtown neighborhood bounded by I-65/70, Delaware and Washington Street. White median household income there is $58,036; while Black median household income is among the lowest in the entire city/county – $10,764. An income disparity of $47,272!

The least income disparity downtown is the neighborhood bounded by South Delaware Street, Washington Street, I-65/70 and I-70 West. Here white median household income’s $55,843; and Black median household income’s $41,042. Creating a very low disparity of $14,801.

And in the downtown neighborhood bounded by North Delaware, I-70, White River, 10th Street, Indiana Avenue, Dr. King Street and I-65 North, white household median income is $50,392 and Black median household income is $25,172 for an income disparity of $25,220.

Between 2007 and 2013, the average median household income of all Indianapolis/Marion County households dropped from $45,071 to $41,345. Median family income fell to $50,518 from $55,386. And median income of non-family households declined to $30,403 from $32,278.

Middle-income households, the bread and butter of Indianapolis, fell during the recession.

It was middle class households in Indianapolis that got hit hard by the recession. And Indy’s leaders – civic and political – had no strategy or plan on what to do to help them.

Last week I wrote about that United Way study that showed that 45 percen of Indianapolis households are either in poverty or are “ALICE” households – Asset Limited, Income Constrained (but) Employed.

The United Way study documented that 63 percent of Indy’s Black and 66 percent of Indy’s Hispanics households are either in poverty or are “ALICE” households that are employed but with incomes falling short of meeting basic needs.

Here’s some data that could explain this.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently reported in 2013 most Indianapolis occupations had an average hourly wage LESS than that for persons in the country as a whole.

The 2013 BLS stats reported the average weekly wage of Indianapolis’ workers was $21.51 per hour; compared with $22.33 nationally.

Poverty, joblessness, underemployment, stagnant and reduced wages and income and a declining middle class is what’s holding Indianapolis back; especially our African-American community. It’s a major contributor to crime and other Indianapolis ills.

This New Year, how Indy’s overall leaders and how African-American leaders react to Indianapolis’ grim economic realities; (not the Pollyanna some leaders want us to believe) will determine whether our city rises to the occasion or sinks toward oblivion!

See ‘ya next week!

You can email Amos Brown at ac-brown@aol.com, or follow him on Twitter at @amoswtlcindy.

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