Poverty rates are ever changing in New York, especially from the early 1900’s to todays age.
In December of 1900, Ellis Island opened in the New York Harbor welcoming thousands of immigrants to the city. From 1900 to 1914, “an average of well over half-a-million immigrants came through New York each year”. Many of them “promptly boarded trains for points all across the U.S.“, while thousands of others stayed in the city. As more and more immigrants came to the city, overpopulation became an increasing issue. There were not enough homes and jobs available for the large amounts of immigrants coming through Ellis Island each day. This resulted in poverty and unemployment rates to sky rocket. In an attempt to gain money for their families, many immigrants and born Americans alike, decided to send their children to work for the rich.
Years later in October 1929, the Great Depression struck the United States. Many New Yorkers were left without jobs and impoverished. In an attempt to lower poverty rates, tenement housings were built to house those the without a home. The housings were very dangerous, especially for children.
Now in the 21st century, poverty rates in New York have decreased severely, however there are still many people that live under poverty.
Between 2006-2010 and 2011-2015, over 17% of neighborhoods saw a 10 percentage point increase in their poverty rate. Even though these statistics have decreased drastically from the early 1900’s there is still a lot of work to be done in order to make those numbers smaller.
-K
Info Found:
http://depts.washington.edu/depress/economics_poverty.shtml
https://allthatsinteresting.com/new-york-immigrants-photos
https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/10/study-says-poverty-rose-to-25-in-new-york-city.html
End Poverty NYC 