Concentrated poverty exists in a dozen communities across Connecticut. The state legislature is now considering a bill to address it.
The bill would facilitate the creation and implementation of a ten-year plan to eradicate concentrated poverty in Connecticut. It would target "high poverty, low opportunity" areas, where 30% or more of the residents have incomes below the federal poverty line.
A decade focused on combating poverty is what’s needed, according to State Senator Marilyn Moore, who represents Bridgeport.
“Poverty, I believe, is a social construct, just like race, and until we buckle down and deal with poverty, we will continue to be up here giving money to programs,” Moore said.
The concentrated poverty areas are split into census tracts. Census tracts are small subdivisions within each county, essentially neighborhoods, used for federal government census tracking.
A total of 64 census tracts in Connecticut, spread among 12 communities, qualify as areas of concentrated poverty, according to state Office of Policy and Management data.
Hartford has 19 impoverished tracts, marking the highest number of census tracts with concentrated poverty in the state. Bridgeport has the second highest number of neighborhoods with concentrated poverty, with 11 tracts qualifying.
The impoverished census tracts were identified as part of a grant program with the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) to fund projects in these areas.
The bill was approved by the state’s Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee with 38 members in support and 13 voting against the bill.
Republican State Representative Holly Cheeseman, who represents East Lyme, Salem and Montville, voted against the bill, and said it was too broad of an approach to the issue.
“I applaud the goals of this bill. I'm just not convinced this bill is the way forward to do it. I would want to see further changes before I could support this,” Cheeseman said.
The bill will next move to the general assembly for a vote.
