The Cost of Being Poor: A Comparative Study of Life in Poor Urban Neighborhoods in Gary, Indiana

Introduction: Structure vs. Agency and the Poor Urban Experience:

Introduction: Structure vs. Agency and the Poor Urban Experience Urban poverty and its deleterious effects are well documented. In studies, urban poverty is associated with economic, social, and in some instances, cultural challenges that undermine upward mobility , engender angst and crime, and ravage neighborhoods. In other literature urban poverty is characterized as an albatross around the neck of society that, despite social policy to arrest it, drains economic resources and threatens to invade the apparent tranquility and stability of suburbia. Scholarship suggests that urban conditions are worsening. However, the everyday experiences and problems of urban residents are often an absent or secondary query in research. The goal of this book is to examine a specific set of challenges or “costs” incurred by residents in a poor urban center. The structure vs. agency discourse represents the backdrop for studying costs associated with urban poverty as a structural force and the subsequent choices residents make.1 Current urban studies seem to focus on macro-level dynamics correlated with unemployment, residential segregation, and social disorganization. And while these issues are justifiable given their far-reaching effects, other costs that residents incur daily that result in long-term negative economic and sociopsychological effects are also important. Through the use of quantitative and qualitative data, this book examines noneconomic as well as often-overlooked economic costs associated with life in poor urban neighborhoods to illustrate ways in which structural forces impact the day-to-day lives and choices of residents. I argue that many residents in poor urban centers incur costs resulting from the “dual dilemma” of being 1 poor or near-poor and residing in a poor urban area. I report on over three years of research in Gary, Indiana, an impoverished city, to provide a comparative examination of the costs of being poor based on the type of neighborhood in which one resides and exposure to poverty. As such, I am able to examine some of the manifestations and implications of neighborhood-concentrated poverty.2 This book adds to the literature and compliments macro-level studies on the effects and implications of urban poverty in several ways. First, I focus on ways residents incur tangible/intangible and economic/noneconomic costs due to poverty. The concept cost is broadly used here to refer to actual expenses persons incur to meet basic needs, such as providing food, shelter, and clothing for their families, as well as important, indirect expenses related to logistics, timing, and differential treatment. The comparative nature of the research design allows for tests regarding how factors such as race/ethnicity, neighborhood type, and location influence the costs under study, as well as possible joint effects. Finally, the book chronicles the cyclic nature of certain costs and sociopsychological tolls that can result, as well as coping mechanisms, strategies, and nontraditional approaches used by residents to counter the costs of being poor or near poor, as they attempt to effectively and expeditiously complete the daily round in the face of various structural constraints. Using terminology from Logan and Molotch (1987), the daily round is considered “the wider routine in which one’s concrete daily needs are satisfied” (p. 103). Activities are broad and vary, but include shopping for food and other essentials, clothing, and other family needs. Structural Constraints and the Urban Experience Urban scholars have presented the shift from manufacturing to service occupations, out-migration of working-class and middle-class families and businesses, increased social isolation, and current and historical discrimination as primary factors that stymie the economic and social successes of many urbanites.3 Studies associate these structural dynamics with increased welfare dependency, unemployment , community demise, sociopsychological malaise, increased female-headed households, and ultimately, concentrated poverty. Macro-level forces provide the context for an understanding of urban conditions, but certain authors also acknowledge specific 2 Introduction consequences for the lives of residents. For example, when economic restructuring and residential and social isolation are considered, Squires (1994) hypothesizes that a conservative policy agenda has contributed to community decline, racial inequality, and uneven development in urban cities due to the deindustrialization of the urban core and the flight of capital to suburbs, the Sunbelt, and abroad. He contends that such structural development is not due to naturally existing market forces, but rather to politics, power struggles, and conflicting interests based on race and class. Squires notes, “when corporations seek out greener pastures they tend to seek out whiter ones as well...