Persistent Poverty and the Failure of Area-Based Initiatives in the U.S.

Abstract

Recent poverty statistics in the U.S. have raised fundamental questions regarding the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs over the last four decades. While discussing the historical backdrop against which many of the area-based initiatives were designed, this paper provides an analysis of changes in poverty rates in the U.S., particularly in California and Los Angeles County. The findings suggest that the changing nature of poverty, including its spatial diffusion over the last three decades, may require alternatives to the re-emerging spatial targeting practices of centrist governments in the U.S. and the U.K.