Testimony for Welfare to Work Commission's series "Struggling on Long Island: Meeting the Challenges of Poverty on Long Island"

May 18, 2012

Good morning members of the Welfare to Work Commission of the Suffolk County Legislator.  My name is Elaine Gross and I am the president of ERASE Racism, as well as a resident of Suffolk County.  There is no doubt that poor and near poor individuals and families of all races are suffering in the County.   My testimony will address the particularly egregious impact of poverty on African Americans and Latinos on Long Island due to structural racism.

Structural racism is the interconnected web of public and private policies and actions, whether legal or not, intentional or not, that limit access to opportunities for success for whole groups of people based on race/skin color; such opportunities for success include having access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, and environments that have the attributes necessary to generate and sustain good health.   One of the insidious results of structural racism is the creation of racially segregated neighborhoods comprised of blacks and/or Latinos and characterized by concentrated poverty.  Concentrated poverty also hurts the regional economy, which has an effect on all Long Islanders

My testimony will address the following issues: (1) how the negative effects of neighborhoods with concentrations of poverty disproportionately affect people of color in Suffolk County (2) how housing discrimination, one of the manifestations of structural racism, perpetuates segregation and creates areas with concentrated poverty (3) how aggressive fair housing enforcement and efforts to affirmatively further fair housing through placement and marketing can give individuals living in poverty access to neighborhoods with quality local services and schools.   

Due to constraints in time, today I will briefly highlight some of the main issues in my written testimony.

Long Island is one of the most segregated metropolitan regions in the nation.  In 1980, the Dissimilarity Index for Long Island blacks in relation to whites was 76.9, which is considered a very high level of segregation.  Thirty years later, in 2010, the black-white level of segregation was 69.2, still very high and representing just a slight decrease (dropping barely one percentage point every five years).  The 2010 Dissimilarity Index for Latinos on Long Island reflected lower levels of segregation, but data show that Latinos have become increasingly more segregated.  In relation to non-Hispanic whites, the level of segregation for Latinos on Long Island in 1980 was 37.1; by 2010 it had risen to 48.5.   

Our research shows that the high level of racial segregation in Suffolk County creates concentrations of poverty that disproportionately affect blacks and Latinos.  For example, we know from 2005-09 American Community Survey data that on average affluent blacks and Latinos in Suffolk County live in neighborhoods with a lower median household income than the neighborhoods in which the average poor white resides.    

Many studies of the region, including ERASE Racism’s research, show that segregation and concentrations of poverty are associated with lower quality local services, such as poor performing schools.[1]   In many regions throughout the nation, the way that residents are taxed to pay for local services directly influences the quality of the services they receive.  Disparities in the quality of public schools on Long Island provide a strong example of this relationship.  On Long Island, more than one half of all black youth under the age of 18 live in 9 out of 100 school districts.[2]   In these nine districts, less than one third of young people are white and the poverty rate among households is twice that of households in other school districts.[3]   Even when federal and state money is factored in, schools in areas of concentrated poverty have higher levels of unmet needs.  Consequently, there are vast disparities in resources for students and student performance in majority black and Latino schools, as compared to majority white schools.  According to 2010 data from the New York State Department of Education, only 19% of majority minority districts on Long Island had a graduation rate greater than 85%, compared to 91% of majority white districts.[4] 

Despite the negative effects of living in neighborhoods with concentrations of poverty, some people have reasoned that blacks and Latinos actually ‘don’t want to live in racially integrated communities’; that they ‘prefer to live with their own kind’; and that they value living ‘close to family and friends’ who provide much-needed assistance.  This year ERASE Racism released a housing survey report that proved that these claims are false and suggested that factors other than self-segregation are contributing to the high levels of racial segregation.   We contracted with the Stony Brook University Center for Survey Research to poll black Long Islanders about housing-related issues.  The sample was drawn from neighborhoods having a 60% or greater proportion of African Americans.  90% of those interviewed had lived on Long Island for at least 10 years; 25% had lived on Long Island for their entire lives.  Unfortunately, in this poll we were not able to survey Latinos, however, our 2008 survey and other national polls of Latinos show that their housing preferences and experiences with housing discrimination have similarities with those of African Americans. 

Despite the myth that people of color self-segregate, when asked about the percentage mix that best represents the kind of neighborhood in which they would most like to live, nearly all African American respondents chose a racially mixed neighborhood, with a large majority, 69%, who chose an even mix of 50% white and 50% black.  Only 1% chose all-black.   Furthermore, blacks on Long Island consider the most important neighborhood characteristics to be a low crime rate (89%), landlords/homeowners who take care of their property (81%), high quality public schools (80%), and good local services (78%).   Very few black respondents, 28%, considered living close to family and friends as one of the most important characteristic when thinking about their ideal neighborhood.  In addition, 64%, or almost two-thirds, said that they received a little or no assistance from their neighbors in finding jobs, babysitting and carpooling.  These findings contradict the common myth that African Americans choose to live in communities with high majorities of blacks because they value social ties and being able to rely on one another more highly than other factors.

Our survey showed that the neighborhood characteristics that blacks most value are lacking where they live.  Respondents identified problems with the quality of their local public schools and the local government services that are offered in their neighborhood.   Only 16% rated their local public school as excellent and 40% rated them as fair or poor.  Dissatisfaction was highest amongst respondents in high-need districts, defined by the State of New York as districts with a poverty level of 20% or more, or which serve 10,000 or more students from poverty-level families.  55% of those in high-need districts rate their local schools as fair or poor, compared to 11% in low-need (wealthy) and average-need districts.  In addition, just 37% believe that local public schools are a good value compared to the taxes they pay.  When thinking about the quality of their local government services, 37% rated them as fair or poor and 43% said that they are not a good value compared to the taxes they pay.   Residents of Suffolk County rated town services less positively than did residents of Nassau. 

A significant percentage also reported problems with crime in their neighborhood. Overall, black residents of Suffolk County are more likely than residents of Nassau County to report a major problem with drug usage and sales, home breaking and entering, robberies and muggings.  In this sense, black neighborhoods on Long Island are also at odds with black residents’ preferences to live in low-crime areas.

Given that blacks prefer integrated communities and value neighborhood characteristics, such as good quality public schools, this pattern of segregation in neighborhoods with concentrations of poverty and local services that are lacking, suggests that factors other than black self-segregation are contributing to the high levels of racial segregation.

According to our 2008 survey, both blacks and Latinos report pervasive housing discrimination.  Our 2012 survey further confirms that housing discrimination is perceived as a major problem on Long Island.  One in three, 33%, of black respondents reported having experienced housing discrimination first-hand or within their immediate family.  Almost half, 44%, believe that African Americans miss out on housing because white homeowners and landlords will not rent or sell to blacks.  58% said they believe that African Americans miss out on housing because real estate agents will not show blacks homes in white areas.   Residents of Suffolk County were most likely to have reported an experience with housing discrimination at the hands of a real estate agent than residents of Nassau County (29% vs. 18%).

Proactive, aggressive enforcement of fair housing laws is essential to ensure that African Americans and other members of protected classes have equal access to housing in all communities of Suffolk County.  Also critically important is the creation and placement of new affordable housing in majority white communities without geographic preferences and affirmatively marketing this housing to communities of color.   The Long Island Association’s recent study of housing costs, the Long Island Index’s 2012 profile report that highlights regional challenges, and the Strategic Plan from the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council all warn that the lack of affordable housing on Long Island is hurting the region’s economy and is having a detrimental effect on the quality of life for many residents. 

Without aggressive fair housing enforcement and efforts to affirmatively further fair housing through placement and marketing, people of color in Suffolk County will continue to be segregated into neighborhoods with high concentrations of poverty. 

Respectfully submitted,

V. Elaine Gross

President, ERASE Racism