Abstract
Various programs and policies have been implemented to deal with concentrated poverty, especially in public housing developments located in urban centers across the nation (Goetz, 2003). The programs aim to move public housing residents to lower-poverty areas or to bring in higher-income individuals when the developments are redeveloped into mixed-income communities. Numerous studies that assess poverty deconcentration initiatives are critical of the programs (Joseph 2006; Imbroscio, 2012a, b; DeFilippis & Fraser, 2010). Most of these studies were done prior to the proliferation of contemporary racial justice movements, like the BlacksLivesMatter movement, and focus on issues of class. Using ethnographic data and semi-structured interviews, this research explores the discourse people use in their efforts to deconcentrate poverty in the city of Chicago and how public housing residents and organizers contest these views. This research finds that politicians, developers, and Chicago Housing Authority officials regularly use implicit and explicit narratives about race in their development and implementation of poverty deconcentration initiatives, despite broader dialog about racial disparities because of the BlackLivesMatters movement. The findings indicate that racialized discourse about the deficient behavior of residents and the spaces where they live is still foundational in the redevelopment of their communities.
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Data Availability
The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to the fact that they constitute an excerpt of research in progress but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Williams, C., Blackmond-Larnell, T. & Eddie, A. Race and Poverty Deconcentration Initiatives: The Salience of Race in Subsidized Housing Redevelopment in Chicago. J Afr Am St 27, 142–158 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-023-09620-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-023-09620-x