Economic Analysis in Planning

Urban poverty and crime

Contents• Poverty.• The urbanization of poverty.• Problems created by the Urban Poor.• Different Aspects of Poverty.• Poverty in the USA, Europe, and LDC.• Solutions.

• Crime.• City Size and Crime Rates.• Explaining High-Crime Areas.• Crimes in UAE.• Effects and Solutions

What is Poverty?

• Lacking the essentials of life. (absolute poverty)

• Lacking the ability to enjoy the standard of living that most other people enjoy. (relative poverty)

• Poverty is state of living on an income below half the national average.

Some Facts• The richest one fifth of the world’s population

consume 75 percent of the world’s economic product.

• The poorest one fifth of the world’s population consume less than two percent.

• one quarter of the world’s population living in industrialized countries consume more than 80 percent of the world’s nonrenewable resources and most of the world’s food products.

The urbanization of poverty

• 2020, about 2 billion people will live in already rapidly expanding urban slums.

• This urbanization of poverty crates problems that affect the quality of life for all residents, problems that cities so far have been unable to resolve.

Special Problems created by the Urban Poor

• Poor neighborhoods need more services from government: - Fire protection costs are higher.

- The need for police protection is greater.- The need to deal with deteriorated or abandoned buildings. - Public transportation is more essential.- Children of the poor need more educational services.At the same time, poor people do not have much income to tax, Slum dwellings do not generate much real estate property tax. Which explains why government services to the poor are low quality.

Different Aspects of Poverty• Inadequate and often unstable income.• Inadequate, unstable or risky asset base. (Material and non-

material assets)• Poor- quality and often insecure, hazardous and overcrowded

housing.• Inadequate provision of public infrastructure.• Inadequate provision of basic services, such as day care, schools,

healthcare, public transport, law enforcement.• Limited or no safety net to mitigate risks.• Inadequate protection of poorer groups.• Poorer groups lack of a voice and their powerlessness within

political systems, leading to little or no possibility of receiving entitlements to goods and services.

Poverty in the United States of America.• A family of four with two children and an annual income

of less than $9,903 - half the federal poverty line - was considered severely poor in 2005.

• Nearly 16 million Americans are living in deep or severe poverty.

• number of severely poor Americans grew by 26 percent from 2000 to 2005.

• Blacks are nearly three times as likely as non-Hispanic whites to be in deep poverty, while Hispanics are roughly twice as likely.

Why?

Poverty in the United States of America.• Worker productivity has increased

dramatically since 2001, but wages and job growth have lagged behind.

• The share of national income going to corporate profits has dwarfed the amount going to wages and salaries.

BY THE NUMBERS

• States with the most people in severe poverty: California - 1.9 million

Texas - 1.6 million New York - 1.2 million Florida - 943,670 Illinois - 681,786 Ohio - 657,415 Pennsylvania - 618,229 Michigan - 576,428 Georgia - 562,014 North Carolina - 523,511

Poverty in Europe.

• homelessness in Western Europe is at it’s highest level in 50 years.

• An estimated 3 million West Europeans were homeless in the winter of 2003.

Poverty in Less-developed countries.

Nations have solved the first economic problem (the production of material goods), but not yet the second (the sufficient distribution of the goods their industries produce).

Solutions

• Governmental investment in infrastructure .• Governmental invest in people.• The private sector is a powerful engine of growth.• Increasing the voice of poor groups.

Solutions

Housing:• Ensure that the land and other resources people need to

build or improve their houses are available.• Change housing finance systems to make cheap loans

available to lower-income and community groups.• Supply existing and new housing areas with infrastructure.• Set up offices to provide advice and technical assistance on

how housing can be built better and cheaper.

Crime

• Personal Safety is considered to be a primary reason for people who chosen to live in suburbs.

• Higher risk of crime is part of the price one pays for the advantages of urban living.

Violation of the law of a society

City Size and Crime Rates,2004

Population Size Violent Crime Property Crime1,000,000 or higher 9.2 40.2500,000 - 999,999 9.1 59.0250,000 - 499,999 9.7 56.4100,000 - 249,999 6.0 48.250,000 - 99,999 4.7 39.825,000 - 49,999 3.8 36.410,000 - 24,999 3.0 34.0Under 10,000 3.3 37.0Suburban Areas 3.2 28.2Rural Counties 3.2 17.4

Explaining High-Crime Areas

Highest crime rates occur in the poorest sections of cities. Why?

There are 4 theories are offered by social scientists:

1- Cultural Patterns

2- Lower Intelligence

3- Persistent Racial Inequality and Poverty

4- Residential Segregation

In UAE, Economic offences dominate crime scene

• Around 65,000 crimes were committed in the UAE in 2005.

• Nearly 61 per cent of them involved attacks on property, deception, cheques and other crimes classified as economic.

• Half of them are in Dubai

Effects of Crime on Everyday Life

• Reduce property values.• Owners lose equity in their investment.• Lose neighbors or renters who otherwise

would provide stability.• Buildings that cannot be sold might get

abandoned. • Reduce the use of public spaces.

What are the Solutions?

• Improving the physical design by creating Defensible space.

• The neighborhoods in which there is a greater sense of community will be the locals who will preventing crimes.

• Increasing economic opportunity in poor communities.

• Government to encourage businesses to locate in economically depressed areas.