Where Poor Renters Live in our Cities

Stuart Rosenthal

RR07-2: Where the poor live and why has an enormous impact on access to jobs, decent quality schools, and other local attributes that affect a family’s ability to rise up out of poverty. Low-income families also rely disproportionately on rental housing for their accommodations. Accordingly, because rental housing support programs affect the location opportunities for the poor, it is important to consider the broader set of factors that drive where poor neighborhoods are found. Failure to do so could undermine the effectiveness of well intended initiatives. With that in mind, this paper provides a framework and evidence that helps to characterize where poor neighborhoods tend to be found, and why…