Press Release:"Now Is The Time: Places Left Behind In The New Economy"

[Tony Chenhansa <tonyc@cpeo.org>]

For the complete Press Release go to:
http://www.hud.gov/pressrel/pr99-76.html

HUD No. 99-76
Further Information:
Call 202/708-0685
For Release Wednesday  April 28, 1999

(SNIPPETS)

NEW HUD REPORT SHOWS MOST COMMUNITIES DOING WELL IN STRONG ECONOMY, BUT
SOME CITIES FACE NEW URBAN CHALLENGE

The Department of Housing and Urban Development report - titled Now Is
The Time: Places Left Behind In The New Economy - was released by
Secretary Andrew Cuomo during an address to the National Press Club.

The report finds that while most cities are healthier than they have
been in a decade, significant numbers have been left behind. It
concludes that "America's economy offers the best opportunity in a
generation" to help these communities now because of low unemployment,
strong business growth, an aggressive urban agenda and the balanced
federal budget created by Clinton Administration policies.

The HUD report is based on studies of unemployment, population loss and
poverty of all 539 central cities in the United States. Central cities
are hub communities in metropolitan areas, surrounded by suburbs. These
central cities range in size from a minimum of 15,000 people in lightly
populated areas to major cities with millions of residents.

The report presents four findings about the new urban challenge:

FINDING #1 - UNACCEPTABLY HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT REMAINS IN ONE IN SIX
CENTRAL CITIES.

High unemployment (50 percent or more above the national rate) affects
17 percent of central cities. This amounts to 95 central cities in 25
states and the District of Columbia with unemployment rates of 6.75
percent or higher in 1998. Even in cities with low unemployment overall,
there are pockets of high joblessness.

FINDING #2 - STEADY POPULATION LOSS AFFECTS ONE IN FIVE CENTRAL CITIES.

"… population losses deprive cities of workers and consumers, leading
businesses to leave as well. In addition, the losses remove middle-class
and wealthier residents from cities, creating a wider income gap between
cities and suburbs. In 1989 the median household income in suburbs was
58 percent higher than the comparable figure in central cities, but rose
to 67 percent higher than the city rate in 1996. The exodus of residents
and the smaller incomes of those left behind lowers city tax revenues,
causing a deterioration of city services and causing more residents to
move out."

FINDING #3 - PERSISTENTLY HIGH POVERTY PLAGUES ONE IN THREE CENTRAL
CITIES.

Poverty rates of 20 percent or more were found in 32 percent of central
cities in 1995 (most recent figure available). This amounts to 170
central cities in 34 states and the District of Columbia. The report
says "evidence from the most recent HUD estimates, and from school
district data on student eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch,
strongly suggests that extraordinarily high poverty rates persist today
in the most distressed cities."

FINDING #4 - ONE IN SEVEN CITIES FACES "DOUBLE TROUBLE."

A combination of high unemployment plus either significant long-term
population loss or persistently high poverty rates – or all three -
affects 14 percent of central cities. This amounts to 74 cities in 23
states and the District of Columbia. Sixty-six percent of cities that
face "double trouble" are small or mid-size - with populations of
100,000 or less.

NEW CHALLENGES STRUGGLING SUBURBS

"The challenges that were once concentrated in central cities have
spread to many older 'inner ring' suburbs…. These communities, once
thought immune to such urban ills as crime and poverty, are increasingly
facing those challenges and more."

"The populations of many older suburbs are stagnating or declining. As
more affluent households have left our older suburbs in most
metropolitan regions for newer suburbs further from the city center,
businesses have followed. Many older suburbs have thus experienced job
losses as dramatic as those seen in central cities; some have seen more
dramatic declines."

PLACES LEFT BEHIND IN RURAL AMERICA

"Rural poverty is often symptomatic of a region's narrow economic base -
a focus on 'extractive industries' like mining or agriculture, for
example, to the exclusion of other kinds of activity. Isolation also
plays a distinct role in shaping rural poverty. Our rural communities
are not only isolated from the investment capital that cities are
(relatively) more successful at attracting; rural places are also more
isolated from the diversity of institutions and networks that can
mobilize responses to the complex problems of chronic poverty and
joblessness."


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[EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY: CPEO'S PHONE NUMBER HAS CHANGED
TO 415-405-7751. OUR FAX NUMBER IS STILL THE SAME]

Tony Chenhansa,  Program Coordinator
Center for Public Environmental Oversight (CPEO)
425 Market Street 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA  94105
ph: 415-405-7751 fx: 415-904-7765
e-mail: tonyc@cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org

A program of the San Francisco Urban Institute