It is well known that: (1) poverty, material hardship, and health problems are not equally distributed across demographic groups and (2) policy plays a role in creating and mitigating inequities. For example, racially discriminatory employment policy, housing policy, and criminal justice policy — to name just a few domains — are known to compromise the economic security of people of color, and Black individuals in particular. In addition, immigration policy affects the economic stability of non-citizens and their families. 14 Unpaid family leave and sick leave policy — a challenge that New York City and New York State have taken on — are also known to play into gender pay gaps that result from taking maternity leave and caring for children. Disproportionate transportation investment in Manhattan versus other boroughs has also introduced variation in access to economic opportunity within the city. These are just some examples of the ways that policy can create inequity, but as we have highlighted in this report, policy also plays a critical role in lowering disadvantage. In Figure 2.1, we document inequities in rates of poverty, hardship, and health problems in 2022 across racial and ethnic groups. 15 While the Poverty Tracker does collect data on individuals that identify as multiracial or a race or ethnicity other than Asian, Black, Latino, and white, we are unable to reliably produce robust estimates for these groups due to sample size constraints. This points to the fact that certain racial ineq- uities can be erased due to barriers to collecting data about smaller racial and ethnic groups such as the American Indian or Alaska Native (AIAN) population, who face high levels of poverty at the national level. 16 In 2022, disadvantage was significantly more common among Asian, Black, and Latino New Yorkers than among white New Yorkers, pointing to structures of inequity that reproduce disadvantage along racial and ethnic lines. Latino New Yorkers were twice as likely to live in poverty compared to white New Yorkers (26% vs. 13%), and rates were similarly elevated among Asian and Black New Yorkers (24% and 23%, respectively). Beyond poverty, in 2022, Latino New Yorkers faced a strikingly high rate of material hardship: 42%. Hard- ship was also more prevalent among Black and Asian New Yorkers than white New Yorkers (35%, 22%, and 16%, respectively). In terms of health, white and Asian New Yorkers had a similar prevalence of health prob- lems, 18% and 16%, respectively, but similar to other measures of disadvantage, Latino New Yorkers expe- rienced the highest prevalence of health problems, at 28%, followed by Black New Yorkers at 26%. Among other factors, varying rates of health problems can be attributed to environmental and/or work conditions that vary by racial and ethnic groups. 14 Recent work from the Poverty Tracker and the New York City Department of Social Services shows how changes in the “public charge” designation during citizenship applications led to a significant drop off in SNAP enrollment among non-citizens and increased use of food pantries, which, while providing a lifeline in a time of emergency, are known to have disadvantages compared to SNAP benefits. 1 5 See Appendix A for details on how the Poverty Tracker identifies respondents’ race and ethnicity. 16 See Shrider and Creamer, “Poverty in the United States: 2022.”
THE STATE OF POVERTY AND DISADVANTAGE IN NEW YORK CITY 21
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