1. Reducing Poverty:Place Matters Opportunity Dividend SummitDetroit, Michigan Todd Swanstrom Des Lee Professor of Community Collaboration and Public Policy Administration University of Missouri – St. Louis March 2, 2010
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3. Todd: Mr. President, I have good news: we can reduce the number of poor people significantly without spending a nickel of taxpayers’ money. President Obama: Todd, this is change I can believe in! What is it? Todd: All we need to do is change where poor people live.
5. Place of Residence Income Our income influences where we live but where we live also strongly influences our income.
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7. Quality of Life Place of Residence Income Our ability to use our incomes to purchase valuable goods and services and achieve a high quality of life is influenced by our place of residence.
10. The Concentrated Poverty “Tax” HIGH-POVERTY CENTRAL CITY AREA VS. LOW-POVERTY SUBURB Loss of wages .................................................$3,000 Cost of cashing payroll checks .......................$340 More expensive groceries ............................... $453 More expensive homeowner’s insurance …....$200 Higher property taxes .......................................$600 TOTAL ...............................................................$4,593
11. Inclusionary Zoning as an Anti-Poverty Strategy Instead of excluding poor people by minimum-lot zoning and outlawing apartments, cities can enact zoning laws that require a certain number of units be set aside for affordable housing.
17. Inclusionary Zoning Will Not Work in Weak Market Areas Like Detroit Table 1. Top 10 older industrial cities in population loss and their 2000 residential vacancy characteristics.
21. The Options 1. Ignore shrinking city. 2. Fight shrinkage: demolitions, tax abatements, anti-flipping laws, etc. 3. Embrace shrinkage: decommissioned infrastructure, re-greening large parts of the city, targeted investments, relocations to urban villages.
