Income Segregation in Dallas

[Miranda Snodgrass]

Article One:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/29/in-greater-dallas-a...

                  In 2015, Pew Research did a study showing just how segregated Dallas, Texas was not just by race but also by income. Income segregation shows segregation of socioeconomic groups not just in the numbers of how much a person brings in yearly but physically separating these groups. The poor is separated from the rich and the geographical difference is crazy noticeable.

                  The U.S. Supreme Court looked at what qualified as racial discrimination with the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and in 2015 a non-profit was looking to add to what could be described as racial discrimination. A non-profit argued that a Texas agency that was providing incentives for low-income housing was being discriminatory because they were separating low-income, minorities from high-income areas. The court in 2015 ruled in favor of this group showing just how Texas was segregating their neighborhoods by income.

                  The social and economic issue of income segregation has increased over the past thirty years in large metropolitan areas such as Dallas. The division between low-income areas from middle-and upper-incomes become obvious, as well as the clear divisions along racial lines. This can be shown by the stark differences in how people in South Dallas, the Oak Cliff and Pleasant Grove areas live versus those in North Dallas and the Park Cities neighborhoods like Highland Park.

                  Dallas isn’t the only Texas city that ranked within the top ten highest Residential Income Segregation Index (RISI) scores. San Antonio, Houston and Austin were all inside the top ten with other cities, like El Paso, still making the list.  

                  Income segregation will become a growing problem as the middle class starts to disappear and a more apparent gap grows between the poor and the affluent people. This will not only have negative effects on the economy but also socially and will continue to affect the education of students in the poorer neighborhoods. Those students, who cannot afford a private school education and even if they could get a scholarship, all those schools are built in North Dallas, making transportation another problem.