Hey, check this out: Poverty in DC took a dip in 2022, going down to 13.3 percent from 16.5 percent the previous year. The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) spilled the beans on this good news. It seems like a bunch of things contributed to this improvement. The overall drop in unemployment, a higher minimum wage, and investments from both the federal and local governments in response to the COVID-19 crisis all played a part.
During 2021 and most of 2022, the District took action by boosting cash assistance for families in need, increasing pay for early childhood educators, and providing extra support like emergency rental assistance and housing vouchers to help people stay in stable homes and, in turn, find and keep jobs. District residents also benefited from expanded Unemployment Insurance benefits funded by the feds until September 2021. (Just to clarify, the ACS asks about income over the past 12 months, so the new 2022 data only partially reflects the economic situation in 2021.)
What’s interesting is that the decrease in poverty was mainly driven by a significant drop of 6.4 percentage points in Black poverty. However, even with this positive change, there are still deep-rooted racial disparities when it comes to poverty in the District. Let me break it down for you:
In 2022, the poverty rate among Black people in DC went down to 21.3 percent from 27.7 percent in 2021, which is a big deal. But here’s the thing: More than one in five Black residents were still experiencing poverty, and the Black poverty rate was eight percentage points higher than the overall rate.
On the other hand, the poverty rate among non-Hispanic white people remained low at 5.9 percent and didn’t change significantly from 2021. The poverty rate among Latino people also stayed pretty much the same at 10.4 percent, but there’s a catch—the data for this group might not be completely reliable due to high margins of error in the estimates.
Child poverty saw a drop of almost seven percentage points, but it’s still high at 16.8 percent. We’ll have to wait until December for the ACS to release reliable data on child poverty by race and ethnicity.
Now, here’s the kicker: The racial disparities in the poverty rate have been a long-lasting issue in the District. Over the past decade (2012 to 2022), the Black poverty rate never went below 21.3 percent and sometimes reached as high as 28.7 percent. In other words, at least one in five, and sometimes even more than one in four, Black residents have experienced poverty each year for the past ten years. This highlights the persistent economic hardship and disadvantage faced by the Black community. On the flip side, the poverty rate among white residents never went above 8 percent (or about one in 13) and was as low as 5 percent (or one in 20) during that time. This stark contrast shows the cumulative impact of persistent poverty on communities and individuals, which can lead to negative outcomes and limited opportunities, especially for children.
Now, the ACS uses the official poverty measure (OPM) to calculate the poverty rate. Experts generally agree that this method is outdated when it comes to measuring hardship in the United States. The OPM compares pre-tax cash income, including earnings, unemployment insurance, and cash-based public assistance, against a threshold that was set at three times the cost of a minimum food diet in 1963 and adjusted for family size. However, the OPM doesn’t take into account other crucial supports that people in the District might receive, such as the Child Tax Credit or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. It also doesn’t consider the significant variation in the cost of living based on location.
So, there you have it—some cool, casual insights into the decline in poverty in DC and the persistent racial disparities that still exist.