Census shows disparity
Income, home-ownership rates higher among white residents
Income rates higher among white residents locally.
Data released by the U.S. Census Bureau showed how inequality persists throughout the Capital Region in metrics like income, home-ownership rate, poverty and others.
A stark racial contrast exists with home ownership in the Albany-schenectady-troy metropolitan statistical area, where the black home-ownership rate is 27 percent, compared to a 69 percent white home-ownership rate, according to the 2013-2017 American Community Survey five-year estimate.
“Home ownership is one of the pillars of the American dream. It really puts people into a different bracket in terms of being able to support themselves and generate wealth and well-being for their family,” said Mark Castiglione, the executive director of the Capital District Regional Planning Commission.
“A lot of our lower income communities just don’t have the means to access that part of the American dream,” he said.
When looking at the city of Albany, white residents are more than twice as likely to own a house as black residents. Nationally, the black homeownership rate is 48 percent, and one study found that the Capital Region has one of the widest gaps between white and black home-ownership rates.
“A lot of people, specifically of color, for whatever reason, be it lack of proper education, access to information, aren’t getting the opportunity that exists to buy a house or have a strong financial safety net,” said Jahkeen Hoke, who was recently named director of Avillage Inc., the South End-based advocacy group.
Racial inequality is evident in median household income, as well.
On the upper end of the income scale, 46 percent of white households have a yearly income greater than $75,000, compared to 19 percent of African-american households in that income range.
At the other end, 40 percent of all African-american households in the Albany-schenectady-troy metro area have an annual income less than $25,000, while 15 percent of white households in the area are in that same income range.
And while median household income in the Albany metro area rose between the 20082012 five-year survey and the 2013-2017 survey, the majority of the income growth was seen by households making $150,000 or more annually.
Among Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga and Rensselaer counties, Saratoga was the only one to see a statistically significant increase in median household income between 2008-2012 and 2013-2017.
In addition, a 2018 study by the Capital District Regional Planning Commission showed that from 1990 to 2016, only white households within the region’s four main counties saw a significant increase in median household income.
Conversely, Hispanic, Asian and African-american households all experienced a decrease in median household income when adjusted for inflation.
Nationally, the U.S. poverty rate fell from 14.9 percent during the 2008-2012 survey, to 14.6 during 2013-2017.
Although Albany County saw a reduction in poverty, from 13.1 percent to 12.4 percent, the other three Capital Region counties all saw an uptick in poverty rate, as did New York state as a whole.
In the Albany-schenectady-troy MSA, the poverty rate is also unequal along racial lines, with 29 percent of Africanamerican residents in the area living under the poverty threshold, while 8.5 percent of white residents live in poverty.
The major factor contributing to the various socioeconomic disparities between racial and ethnic groups in the Capital Region is education, or a lack
thereof, according to Hoke.
He said educating both political and business leaders is just as important as educating the youth in historically disadvantaged minority communities, like the South End.
“It’s education for everybody. You can go to the business community, and they would probably think there’s no problem,” Hoke said of the region’s economic inequality.
“People in leadership positions, political, private sector, public sector, the approach has to be diversifying internally employees, contractors, suppliers, investors, across the board. That’s the top down approach,” he said.
Just 18 percent of Africanamericans and 27 percent of Hispanics throughout Albany, Rensselaer, Schenectady and Saratoga counties have a bachelor’s degree, according to the CDRPC.
Hoke said educating young people about financial literacy, career trajectories and how to access opportunities are the most important points of emphasis for the “bottom up” approach.
“People are disengaged from what’s actually happening,” Hoke said. “They’re so engulfed in their life that they’re not realizing people cannot afford a gallon of milk. They don’t have to worry about what things cost.”
Using the five-year estimates, as opposed to single-year estimates, provides a larger sample size of data for smaller geographical areas. The 2013-2017 estimate provides more precise estimates of population and housing characteristics, particularly for subpopulations in an area, according to the Census Bureau.
The bureau compiles the survey data from more than 3.5 million households across the country over five years to determine how $675 billion in state and federal funds should be distributed.
The five-year estimates are a key source of data for more than 40 social, economic and demographic topics in years between the bureau’s 10-year census.