Race, Concentrated Poverty, and Policy: Empowerment Zones in Distressed Urban Areas

Author: Michele A. Gilbert

Dissertation School: Kent State University

Pages: 214

Publication Date: August 2006

Availability:
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Access Number: 10816

Abstract:

Policymakers have long attempted to adequately address the issue of poverty within society. Federal, state, and local governments have enacted programs providing or assisting impoverished individuals with attaining food, housing, and cash assistance as well as other numerous supports and services. Many of those programs have been successful at achieving their goals, such as providing a nutritional diet, shelter, or medical attention for individuals. For the most part, programs have targeted measurable goals that do not overlap with one another. When dealing with the contemporary issue of concentrated urban poverty (areas where more than 40 percent or more households are below the poverty line), these compartmentalized programs may have provided the tangible support or service, while individuals and communities became increasingly impoverished, isolated, and distressed.

Concerns about concentrated poverty, economic development, and self-sufficiency resulted in the creation of federally funded Empowerment Zones (EZs) to revitalize these distressed areas. The Empowerment Zone initiative aims to create economic opportunity and promote sustainable development through both tax incentives and grant dollars. Furthermore, EZs give city governments flexibility in taking a holistic approach toward eradicating concentrated poverty within a specific geographic area of the city.

This dissertation focuses on the effectiveness of the EZ initiative in the original six urban areas: Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, New York City, and Philadelphia/Camden. Using a quantitative analysis, this study measures the impact of EZ designation on poverty, employment, and educational attainment of the residents in the six zones. The EZs represent an extensive social experiment designed to address distressed areas of concentrated poverty, and as such, they represent an important research opportunity that can guide the development of future policy. This dissertation seeks to fill a void in the published research by empirically demonstrating how powerful a factor the EZ-targeted comprehensive development strategy is in the lives of residents within the designated community.

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