Housing Bubble
Study on concentrated poverty in Washington, DC released
May 19, 2003
The Fannie Mae Foundation today released "The Poorest Become Poorer," a special report on patterns of concentrated poverty in Washington, DC. The report shows the following troubling trends regarding poverty in the nation's capital:
- Despite the prosperity enjoyed by the Washington metro area during the 1990s, concentrated poverty deepened in the District. The District's increased concentration of poverty runs counter to national trends. In the central cities of the nation's 100 largest metro areas, the average percentage of the poor living in extreme poverty tracts declined by almost a third (dropping from 17 to 12 percent). In the District, the percentage more than doubled (rising from nine to 24 percent).
- The number of high-poverty census tracts (where more than 30% of the residents are poor) in the city rose from 36 in 1990 to 43 in 2000, and the number of extreme poverty tracts (where more than 40 percent of the residents are poor) more than doubled, rising from 10 to 23.
- The number of District residents living in extreme poverty more than tripled, rising from 20,600 in 1990 to 66,000 in 2000.
"The Poorest Become Poorer" is a special excerpt from the Fannie Mae Foundation's upcoming "Housing in the Nation's Capital 2003" report which looks at the state of housing in Washington, DC, and will be released in June. For more information, and to download "The Poorest Become Poorer," go to www.fanniemaefoundation.org.
