Poverty, Race and Inequality Program

THE POVERTY, RACE and Inequality Program (PRIP) is one of the five principal research areas of the Institute for Policy Research (IPR), which is based at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. PRIP's main activities focus on research, together with publication of research findings and advocacy. Under the leadership of sociologist James Rosenbaum, PRIP activities include analyses of the effects of poverty and welfare reforms, the spending patterns of low-income families, and the effects, particularly economic effects, of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Researchers also consider the Gautreaux and Moving to Equality residential mobility programs. The Gautreaux program derives from the 1966 court case in which Dorothy Gautreaux successfully sued the Chicago Housing Authority in America's first public-housing desegregation lawsuit. This led to the provision of vouchers, moving allowances, and counseling to approximately 7,000 families so that they could move to suburban areas. In 2002 another 500 families were similarly offered vouchers to move into low-poverty residential areas that had low proportions of ethnic minorities.

The PRIP is studying the effects of this move on both those who chose to take advantage of it and those who preferred to stay where they were. This is a longitudinal, qualitative study aimed at understanding and documenting from a systemic perspective the overall impact of accommodation and environment on economic and social opportunities. This program and the related Moving to Opportunity program have demonstrated positive results with respect to improved mental health, especially among women.

Other researchers are studying issues such as ethnographic analysis of the impact of welfare reform, the implications of temporary contracts and unemployment, and the impact of having a roommate of a different socioethnic background. The research program generally is aimed at evaluating the proposition that inferior ability, diligence, or aptitude explains why poor people are poor, rather than lack of access to better economic opportunities.

This clearly has an ethnic implication since so much of America's housing, particularly public housing, has led to the creation of single-ethnic-group residential areas. The Gautreaux program demonstrated that, given suitable opportunities and more amenable housing, all but a handful of those families participating were able to escape from permanent poverty.

The PRIP is linked with four other research programs at the IPR, which are the Child, Adolescent and Family Studies Stream; Law and Justice Studies; Philanthropy, Voluntarism, and Nonprofit Organizations; and Politics, Institutions, and Public Policy.

In common with the PRIP, research centers are involved with both research and publication of findings in a variety of formats, policy formulation and advocacy, and related activities. The work of relocating poor people from disadvantaged to better-designed accommodation has had a positive effect on the lives of many families.