Wealthy Cities Push People Out Into Poverty

Pasadena Central Park (Photo -Staff).

As housing growth in big cities fails to keep up with job growth, the inevitable surge in home prices and rents creates a squeeze on middle income earners.

By Ethan Elkind

But it also pushes many of these individuals out to low-cost sprawl areas, whether it’s the San Joaquin Valley by the Bay Area or high desert or Inland Empire by Los Angeles.

The consequence of that migration is not just a major environmental toll, as these individuals commute long distances to job centers while sprawling out over open space and agricultural lands.  It’s also further economic inequality.  As California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) reports:

This data suggests [sic] that those who work in relatively inexpensive inland California have a harder time making ends meet than those working in high cost coastal areas. It further suggests that many workers are made worse off by moving away from high-wage places like the Bay Area. Why then do households (especially low-income households) appear to be leaving high-wage coastal areas? Based on the research discussed above and our office’s prior work, it seems likely that a major contributing factor is their inability to find housing.

Restrictive housing policies in high-wage areas therefore push people into poor areas of the state, where they remain poor as they lack access to good jobs.

It’s not a recipe for a healthy, functioning society in the long term.

> Pasadena City Council will consider an anti-camping ordinance at its Monday, Oct. 17 meeting, an ordinance that may not be in the best interests of one of the most vulnerable populations in Pasadena, those who are sleeping on the streets. 

Ethan Elkind directs the climate program at UC Berkeley Law, with a joint appointment at UCLA Law. His areas of focus include land use, transportation, electric vehicles, energy storage, and renewable energy, and his book “Railtown: The Fight for the Los Angeles Metro Rail System and the Future of the City” was published by the University of California Press in 2014. This article was originally published on ethanelkind.com.

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