LOW-INCOME AREA COMPARISONS MDCs High unemployment Higher rates of alcoholism & drug addiction Illiteracy Juvenile delinquency & crime Public housing LDCs Squatter settlement – an area within a city in a less developed country in which people illegally establish residences on land they do not own or rent and erect homemade structures.

GHETTOIZATION & URBAN DECAY More affluent families leave the inner city for suburbs As people leave, the tax base diminishes Cities then become the center of poverty Brownfield – a former industrial or commercial site that is under-used, vacant, or abandoned where there is the potential for environmental contamination.

WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA BROWNFIELD

REDLINING & FILTERING As affluent houses are vacated Filtering – the process in which more prosperous families move out of older housing and into new housing, creating a vacancy, which is filled by families that are less wealthy. As the city decays Redlining – a discriminatory real estate practice in North America in which members of minority groups are prevented from obtaining money to purchase homes or property in predominantly white neighborhoods. Today, this practice is officially illegal. Community Reinvestment Act (U.S.) requires banks to track by census tract where their investments go

PUBLIC HOUSING Public housing – housing owned by the government; in the United States, it is rented to residents with low incomes, and the rents are set at 30 percent of the families’ income. Low-income housing, generally in the inner city Only 1% in US 14% in UK Less money devoted to public housing in the US Decreased the number of units by 1 million ( ) Number of people who need public housing up 2 million in same time period

PUBLIC HOUSING The Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago, completed in 1962, was the largest single public housing project in the world – 28 sixteen story buildings and nearly 30,000 people. Because of a combination of factors – poor planning, lack of opportunity, crime, etc. – all of the 28 buildings have been demolished and the area is being redeveloped.

GENTRIFICATION Gentrification – the movement into the inner portions of American cities of middle- and upper-income people who replace low-income populations, rehabilitate the structures they occupied, and change the social character of neighborhoods. Low-income areas attract middle-class groups for a number of reasons Larger residences Stable construction Cheaper Attractive architectural designs Location near downtown employment, services, entertainment Groups Yuppies SINKS DINKS Empty nesters

DOWNTOWN PROJECT

SQUATTER SETTLEMENTS UN: 175 million people live in squatter settlements 43% of LDC urban population live in these settlements Known as “barriadas,” “barrios,” “favelas” (Latin America), “bidonvilles” (N. Africa), “shantytowns” (S. Africa), “bastees” (India), “gecekondu” (Turkey), “kampongs” (Malaysia) & “barong-barong” (Philippines) Periphery of city Built with whatever people can find Limited/no services Most people employed informally or illegally

INDIA

PHILIPPINES

SOUTH AFRICA

BRAZIL