Part 5 of Spectrum News 1's series "Breaking the Cycle: Generational Poverty

COLUMBUS, Ohio– To many, Franklin County may seem prosperous. But the reality is that poverty rates aren't improving despite economic gains.

We are a very vibrant community; we're doing so well in this community on so many measures. But at the same time, we've got a high poverty rate with 1-4 children in poverty.

About 16 percent of franklin county residents are in poverty. But when factoring in race, the story changes. Nearly 30% of African Americans in the county live in poverty.

To that end, the county is beginning the work to undo the impact decades of Federal, State, and local polices that caused inequality among its residents. They are also working to create new policies and initiatives to help reduce poverty.

"It's natural for us; we are the county safety net for all of our residents. And if we keep doing things the same way. we're not going to have the impact we need to make, says Marilyn Brown, President, Franklin County Commissioners."

The blueprint for reducing poverty outlines more than 100 recommendations in four categories that research shows have a direct impact on a person's financial security.

The recommendations came out of a series of meetings with community members and stakeholders.

• Jobs – increase access to higher-paying jobs through training, employer engagement, elimination of systemic wage gaps and improved support service delivery.
• Housing - make families more housing stable, enable more families at or near poverty to find quality housing and increase financial resources for housing support.
• Health – improve health and wellness through improving maternal and child health, reducing instances and racial disparities in preventable diseases and improving overall conditions in concentrated poverty neighborhoods.
• Youth – increase academic success among low-income youth, increase youth home stability, and expand partnerships with parents.

Brown says the four categories are designed to rebuild the foundations necessary, to help disadvantaged communities take steps out of poverty and toward the middle class. 

"We're certainly not going to end poverty, and we certainly aren't going to do these overnight," added Brown.

Data from the US census American community survey shows depending on where you live in franklin county poverty rates by individual zip code range from less than 1 percent to over 50 percent.

Michael Wilkos, Senior VP, Community Impact, from United Way, says, "Place matters, and it matters in ways that we are more fully understanding. In that, some of the most important contributing factors to an individual's life outcomes come down to the neighborhood in which you are born into, and the neighborhood in which you continue to live throughout your life."

Wilkos also added that factors like whether you graduate, the types of jobs you seek, and the amount of income you could potentially earn, are all determined in part by where you are born and grow up.

"Low opportunity neighborhoods have lower outcomes for the children born in those communities. But their race also matters because not only is there economic segregation but we still have racial segregation," says Wilkos.

That segregation created by government policies dating back to the early 1900s negatively affected homeownership and upward mobility for non-white people and had a disproportionate effect on African Americans.

Brown says, "That didn't happen by happenstance, it happened by systemic policies that our federal government had for generations and generations. Redlining in communities that happened for generations."

The federal housing administration established in 1934 created policies that gave white Ohioans access to federally backed to move out of urban neighborhoods into suburban areas.

Those same programs prevented African Americans from purchasing homes in those predominantly white areas.

Though redlining was officially outlawed through the civil rights act in 1968, the reality and impact of the discrimination persist to this day.

"The effects of that just don't go away when the laws change, and there had not been affirmative policies put in place in this community as many communities, to fight those effects of what was legal discrimination," said Brown.

The redlined areas of this Columbus map correspond to the some of the most impoverished regions of the county today. Similarly, transportation policies created a system of roadways that cut off predominantly African American neighborhoods from growth centers, essentially creating islands of economic decay.

Economic development couldn't happen because there was no way to get two and from those communities.

The impact of those policies over time directly influences the ability of African Americans to build wealth and own homes today.

"We can't ignore race. Race is what causes a lot of the poverty, and race and the policies that were put in place that caused the segregation, and discrimination and the lack of economic opportunity, really are caused by racist policies," says Brown.

According to data from the Urban Institute, homeownership is more likely when parents are homeowners. And the homeownership rate for African Americans trails all other groups at 41 percent according to census data from 2016. For white non-Hispanic Americans, it's 72 percent. 

African American families have, on average, seven times less wealth than African Americans, and five times less wealth than Hispanics. 

Those figures are why Brown says addressing racial inequality both in policy and culture is a cornerstone of the blueprint.

"We've gotta talk about it. We've got to talk about it with the knowledge that caused those problems and caused those issues to happen. And then, and only then, when we have an understanding of why those things occurred, can we start addressing the issues that underlie, that and start making progress," says Brown.

The plan calls for implicit bias training across county departments, and county service providers. And input from focus groups and steering committee members identified race as an overarching problem requiring frank discussion. 

It is significant that the franklin county poverty blueprint is the first time that I know of, where a public document is acknowledging the issue of structural and historical racism, and how that has disadvantaged an entire group of people in this community," added Wilkos.

The next steps include hiring a team to help implement the recommendations and opening the innovation center at the Columbus Partnership.

The top three priorities involve employer engagement, job skills training, and youth academic success.