Community Development
Student ResourcesThe Enduring Challenge of Concentrated Poverty in America
Case Studies from Communities Across the U.S.
In 2006, the Community Affairs Offices of the Federal Reserve System partnered with the Brookings Institution to examine the issue of concentrated poverty. The resulting report, The Enduring Challenge of Concentrated Poverty in America: Case Studies from Communities Across the U.S., profiles 16 high-poverty communities from across the country, including immigrant gateway, Native American, urban, and rural communities. Through these case studies, the report contributes to our understanding of the dynamics of poor people living in poor communities, and the policies that will be needed to bring both into the economic mainstream.
Read the complete report.
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
Overview
Sweeping grasslands of the high plains dominate the eastern landscape of the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. Rising westward into the rugged Rocky Mountains, the reservation's high plains reach elevations up to 9,000 feet. This breathtaking natural landscape provides an uncharacteristic backdrop for the reservation's impoverished communities. While the reservation's remote, rural landscape is not typically associated with geographic setting for concentrated poverty, its residents experience many of the same issues associated with concentrated poverty in urban communities, such as limited employment opportunities, high levels of welfare dependency, insufficient housing, and few services or community amenities. As one tribal housing official explained, the vast open spaces can be misleading. Some reservation neighborhoods, he said, “look like inner-city slums, just spread out over a much larger area.”
Read the complete Blackfeet Reservation, Montana Case Study.
