Study: D.C. Poverty Up Despite Boom

Black residents in particular have been left behind, with employment levels among blacks close to their lowest in 30 years, the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute said in the report.

The district in recent years has seen a thriving real estate market and job growth, and the city government has enjoyed budget surpluses. So it was surprising that people at all socio-economic levels were not benefiting to some degree, said Ed Lazere, the institute's executive director and the report's author.

"You sort of hope that when the economy is getting better that everyone gets at least a little bit better," he said.

But Lazere said much of the new wealth appeared to be associated with newcomers to the city, while longtime residents have seen their cost of living rise, but not their incomes.

"There are lots of people who lived in D.C. through good times and bad times, many of them working at low wage jobs in the hospitality industry. Those folks aren't doing any better," Lazere said.

Among the reports findings:

-- Employment among black residents has been falling since the 1980s. Some 51 percent of black adults in the city worked in 2006, compared with 62 percent in 1988.

-- Employment among residents with only a high school diploma also is at 51 percent, the lowest level in nearly 30 years.

-- The gap between high-income and low-income households is wider than every other major U.S. city except for Atlanta and Tampa, Fla., the report said, citing a Brookings Institution analysis. The average income of the poorest fifth of D.C. households rose just 3 percent from the early 1980s to the early 2000s when adjusted for inflation. Meanwhile, the average income of the wealthiest fifth soared 81 percent.

-- The city's poverty rate for 2005-2006 was 19.8 percent, compared with 15 percent in 1999-2000. That translates into 27,000 additional poor residents. D.C.'s poverty rate ranks 26th among large cities; Detroit, where 32.5 percent were poor in 2006, ranks No. 1.

Lazere said the study did not attempt to analyze the cause of poverty and income inequality in the capital. But he speculated that the roots lie in cutbacks to public assistance and educational programs that were made in the 1990s, when the D.C. economy overall was suffering. Those services have only recently started to be restored, he said.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said he has long been aware of the city's poverty problem and that his administration would use the institute's report to help inform policy decisions.

"As mayor, my key priorities -- education, job training and affordable housing -- have been developed to help combat poverty," he said in a statement. "At the crux of this issue is creating an educational system that breaks some of the cycles that keep people in desperate situations."