The City Challenged

One hundred years ago, low-income inner-city neighborhoods in the United States teemed with throngs of recent immigrants from Europe. Such neighborhoods that housed perhaps 100,000 a century ago may contain fewer than 5,000 inhabitants today. Those remaining in these neighborhoods face a variety of distinctive social and physical challenges that are very different from those faced by suburban residents.

The underclass is a group prevented from participating in the material benefits of a more developed society because of a variety of social and economic challenges. A disproportionately large share of the underclass live in inner-city neighborhoods, where they must contend with a cycle of hardships .

Inner-City Food Insecurity

People line up for free food in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. Poverty and gentrification both exist in this neighborhood (refer to Figure 13-71).

Job Skills

Inner-city residents are increasingly disadvantaged in competing for jobs. They lack technical skills needed for most jobs because fewer than half complete high school. In the past, people with limited education could become factory workers or filing clerks, but today these jobs require skills in computing and handling electronics. Inner-city residents do not even have access to the remaining low-skilled jobs, such as custodial and fast-food service jobs because these jobs are increasingly in the distant suburbs and poorly served by public transport.

Challenges for Families

Unwed mothers give birth to two-thirds of the babies in U.S. inner-city neighborhoods, and 80 percent of children in the inner city live with only one parent. Because of inadequate child-care services, single mothers may be forced to choose between working to generate income and staying at home to take care of the children. If the father or another partner moves back home, the mother may lose welfare benefits, leaving the couple financially worse off together than apart.

Challenges to Health & Safety

Inner-city neighborhoods have a relatively high share of a metropolitan area’s serious crimes, such as murder. A relatively high percentage of victims, as well as those arrested for murder in cities are people of color.

High crime rates in inner-city neighborhoods often reflect the neighborhoods’ high rates of joblessness and addiction. For example, some drug users obtain money through criminal activities. Gangs may form in inner-city neighborhoods to control lucrative drug distribution. Violence may erupt when two gangs fight over the boundaries between their drug distribution areas. Although drug use is increasing more rapidly in rural areas, cities still have higher rates of use, especially heroin and cocaine.

Services

Inner-city neighborhoods lack adequate police and fire protection, shops, hospitals, clinics, and other health-care facilities. Food deserts are especially common in low-income inner-city areas. Low-income residents in inner-city neighborhoods need the same range of public services as other residents. However, central cities face a growing gap between the cost of needed services in inner-city neighborhoods and the availability of funds to pay for them.

Pause & Reflect 13.4.1

How might additional investment in education address some of these features of the underclass?