1. THE GEOGRAPHY OF
OPPORTUNITY
Building Communities of
Opportunity in Massachusetts
February 26, 2009
Harvard Law School
Cambridge, MA
Jason Reece, AICP
Senior Researcher
The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity
The Ohio State University
Reece.35@osu.edu
Presented by The Boston Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution
Society and the Racial Justice Program of the American Civil Liberties Union

2. Section 1
Introduction
 Background on this project
 Origins (SR symposium)
 KI mapping and legal
services
 Today’s discussion
 Opportunity matters
 Mapping opportunity
 Why and how…
 Opportunity mapping in MA
 Results
 The intersection of
opportunity race and class
 Opportunity, housing and the
foreclosure crisis

3. Section 2
Opportunity Matters: Space, Place, and Life
Outcomes
 “Opportunity” is a situation or condition that places individuals in a
position to be more likely to succeed or excel.
 Opportunity structures are critical to opening pathways to success:
 High-quality education
 Healthy and safe environment
 Stable housing
 Sustainable employment
 Political empowerment
 Outlets for wealth-building
 Positive social networks

4. Opportunity Matters:
Neighborhoods & Access to Opportunity
 Five decades of research
indicate that your environment
has a profound impact on your
access to opportunity and
likelihood of success
 High poverty areas with poor
employment, underperforming
schools, distressed housing and
public health/safety risks
depress life outcomes
 A system of disadvantage
 Many manifestations
 Urban, rural, suburban
 People of color are far more
likely to live in opportunity
deprived neighborhoods and
communities
4

5. Which community would you choose?
To be safe and have positive health outcomes? For your kids to receive a quality
education? Which community would be better for employment and have a more
sustainable tax base?

6. What are the implications of
opportunity isolation?
 Individual
 Poor economic outcomes, lower educational outcomes,
degraded asset development
 Poor health conditions, higher exposure and risk from
crime
 Psychological distress, weak social and professional
networks
 Community/Economy
 High social costs, distressed and stressed communities,
fiscal challenges
 Weakened civic engagement and democratic participation
 Underdeveloped human capital, poor labor outlook, poor
economic development prospects

7. Section 3
Mapping Opportunity: Why and How
Inequality has a geographic footprint
Maps can visually track the history and presence of
discriminatory and exclusionary policies that spatially
segregate people
Identifying places with gaps in opportunity can help direct
future investment and identify structures which impede
access to opportunity

8. Mapping Opportunity: Why and How
 The Kirwan Institute has
conducted “opportunity
mapping” for states and
metropolitan regions across
the US
 Why identify the “State of
Opportunity”
 How are low-income groups
situated in the State?
 How are racial and ethnic groups
situated?
 What can be done to improve the
opportunity landscape?

9. Opportunity Mapping in Litigation:
Thompson v. HUD (Remedial
Proposal)
 Submitted expert reports in
both the liability and the
remedy phases of the
litigation, on behalf of
plaintiffs
 Used GIS to analyze
current conditions of
segregated public housing
(liability phase) and frame
solutions for desegregation
(remedy phase) in a
regional context

10. Mapping Communities of Opportunity: Methods
and Indicators
 How do you map opportunity?
 Data representing community conditions was
gathered for neighborhood (census tracts)
across the state
 Data for all indicators of community conditions
was aggregated to the Census Tract level and
analyzed to create a comprehensive opportunity
index for the census tracts (neighborhoods)
throughout the state
 The opportunity index is then mapped and
census tracts are broken into quintiles based
on their opportunity score
 Very Low, Low, Moderate, High, Very High

11. Mapping Communities of Opportunity: Methods
and Indicators
 Three areas of
opportunity were
analyzed using GIS
mapping capability:
 Education Quality and
Opportunity
 Economic Health and
Transportation
 Neighborhood Stability and
Health

12. Opportunity Mapping
 Education Quality and Opportunity
 Student Expenditures
 Student Poverty Rate
 Test Scores for Schools
 Graduation and Dropout Rates
 Teacher Qualifications

13. Opportunity Mapping
 Economic Health and Transportation
 Unemployment Rates
 Population on Public Assistance
 Proximity to Employment
 Employment Change: 2000-2005
 Mean Commute Time

14. Opportunity Mapping
 Neighborhood Stability and Health
 Home Values
 Neighborhood Vacancy Rates
 Crime
 Neighborhood Poverty
 Home Ownership Rate
 Proximity to Toxic Waste Sites
 Superfund Sites

15. Comprehensive Opportunity Map

16. Comprehensive Opportunity Map: Greater Boston

17. Comprehensive Opportunity Map: Northeastern Massachusetts

21. Access to Opportunity:
Race, Ethnicity, and Class
 Racialized isolation from neighborhoods of
opportunity is stunning in Massachusetts
 Immigrants from Africa and Latin America were
found to be disproportionately concentrated in
low-opportunity neighborhoods
 Racial isolation into low-opportunity
neighborhoods is more pronounced than
class-based segregation into these
communities

22. Access to Opportunity: Race
 Racialized isolation from neighborhoods of
opportunity in Massachusetts:
 More than 90% of African-American and Latino
households in were isolated in the lowest
opportunity neighborhoods in the State
 Over 55% of Asian households were found in low-
opportunity neighborhoods
 By contrast, only 31% of White, Non-Latino
households were found in low-opportunity
neighborhoods

23. Access to Opportunity: Race

29. Access to Opportunity: Immigrants
 Non-native born Africans and Latinos are
disproportionately concentrated in low-
opportunity neighborhoods:
 42% of European-born and 46% of Asian-born
residents live in low-opportunity neighborhoods
 By contrast, more 70% of non-native born African
and Latin American residents live in low-
opportunity neighborhoods

30. Access to Opportunity: Class
 Racial isolation into low-opportunity
neighborhoods is more pronounced than class-
based segregation into these communities
 42% of low-income White households live in low-
opportunity communities, while 33% live in high-
opportunity community areas
 By contrast, more than 95% of low-income Latinos,
93% of low-income African-Americans, and 71% of
low-income Asians live in low-opportunity
communities
 Approximately 90% of high-income African-Americans
and Latinos live in low-opportunity communities

32. Subsidized Housing and Communities of
Opportunity
 Housing is a strategic intervention point into
opportunity and advancement
 However, 100,000 (nearly 76%) subsidized
housing units in the State is in low-opportunity
communities
 Only 17,000 units (roughly 12%) of subsidized
housing are in high-opportunity communities

33. Subsidized Housing and Communities of
Opportunity
Comprehensive Opportunity Map: Southeastern Massachusetts

35. Residential Foreclosure and Opportunity
Over half of the State’s estimated amount of high-
cost HMDA loans, residential foreclosures, and
90-day residential foreclosures were located in
low-opportunity neighborhoods
This data shows the strong relationship between
poor lending practices, foreclosure, and
vacancy, all of which have been
disproportionately concentrated in low-
opportunity neighborhoods

36. Residential Foreclosure and Opportunity
Distribution of Residential Factors Across the Community Opportunity Spectrum

40. Reflecting on these findings….
 What does our analysis find and suggest?
 People of color are disproportionately concentrated in
opportunity deprived communities
 Which places them within a system of disadvantage that
ultimately impacts life outcomes
 Creating both an individual and societal tragedy
 Subsidized housing reinforces this opportunity
isolation
 Foreclosures will widen the “opportunity divide” in the
State of Massachusetts
 What are the implications of this challenge and
how can we formulate a response?
 Opportunity based model of social justice and
community development
 People, places and linkages

41. To access this report and other resources please
visit us on-line at: www.kirwaninstitute.org
41