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Jobs and Education: The Struggle to Escape the Poverty Trap

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The Divided City

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Abstract

Homewood may be Pittsburgh’s poorest and most neglected neighborhood. In contrast to the Hill District, immortalized in August Wilson’s masterful cycle of plays, which sits prominently between downtown Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh, Homewood lies in an isolated part of the city’s East End well off the beaten track. As Homewood’s city councilman, the Reverend Ricky Burgess, wrote in a 2015 op-ed, “Homewood is the city’s poorest, least-diverse, most dangerous neighborhood, with the highest amount of violence and economic distress. Homewood also has the city’s largest number of vacant, abandoned, and tax-delinquent properties. There are no grocery stores, no drugstores, no clothing stores, and no name-brand store of any kind. The terror of drugs, crime, and gun violence causes fear and despair, poisoning every resident’s quality of life. It is a community in crisis.”1

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Mallach, A. (2018). Jobs and Education: The Struggle to Escape the Poverty Trap. In: The Divided City. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-782-7_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-782-7_10

  • Publisher Name: Island Press, Washington, DC

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-61091-985-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-61091-782-7

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