Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York
Dec. 17, 2019 By Kristen Torres
Nearly 20 percent of residents who live in the greater Elmhurst and Corona areas are living below the federal poverty line, according to a new report.
The report, released today by the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York, looked at five neighborhoods — Elmhurst, East Elmhurst, Elmhurst-Maspeth, Corona and North Corona — and noted that the majority of residents in these neighborhoods work in low-paying jobs.
About 50 percent of households earn less than 200 percent of the federal poverty line. For a family of three this represents $40,840 per year.
Given the low wages, 18.9 percent of residents in the five collective neighborhoods live at or below the poverty line. A family of three is considered as living below the federal poverty line if the household earns less than $20,420 per year.
Study area is in yellow (CCC of NY)
The report noted that 13.2 percent of residents across Queens live at or below the federal poverty line.
“Rates of employment and labor force participation are high [in the five neighborhoods],” the report said. “But many workers are in lower-wage industries where incomes may not be enough to support a family.”
Residents are most likely to work in the construction or hospitality industries, according to the report. A much smaller number work in positions in education, health and other high-paying professional jobs.
The report found that nearly 5,000 students throughout the five neighborhoods lack stable housing, with about 80 percent of those students temporarily living with relatives or neighbors due to economic hardship.
“Income insecurity is real and means that the effects of an economic downturn in the future would be widely and harshly felt in the community,” the report said.
The five neighborhoods have the highest rate of immigrant residents in the city — nearly two-thirds of the population — and more than half are Latinx.
The report revealed poverty disproportionately affects black and Latinx residents compared to white and Asian residents. According to the report, 22 percent of Latinx residents and 35 percent of black residents are classified as living in poverty. Meanwhile, the rate for whites is 15 percent and Asians 17 percent.
The report also cited a lack of affordable housing as one of the reasons most families in the area struggle with income insecurity.
“Only half of residents consider their housing to be affordable,” the report said. “The consequences of rising rents mean that overcrowded units and ‘doubled up’ families are more common than in other parts of the city.”
The report noted that the best way to combat poverty in these neighborhoods is to increase the supply of affordable housing and to provide additional support for immigrants.
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20 Comments
I’m a LEGAL immigrant, most of Elmhurst Corona and Jackson Heights are full of illegals. I’m sick and tired of the term Undocumented immigrant! Getting food stamps free medical free college education! Why breaking the law is rewarded?! NYC politicians care more about illegals then citizens. When I came to this country no one handed me anything, read the laws and obey them, could not even qualify or ask for public assistance as being legal could not be public charge, worked and working to make a better life for myself, looks like being illegal is much better. Also a lot of refugees learn to game the system by not showing income on tax returns getting benefits, on purpose, and it’s not like no one knows about this, this is encouraged by liberals who take, steal, tax dollars on “reforms”.
if anyone can point me to food pantrys or other organizations designed to giving these folks some assistance, please comment!
They already get welfare, food stamps, WIC, etc, but you may also go to the Soros funded Make the Road New York, they will guide you and squeeze more money out of you.
If you call 311 they will give you a custom list of food pantries, soup kitchens and other assistance in the community.
That wouldn’t be a problem if the path to legal immigration, wasn’t near impossible for most….
Impossible? United States accepts more than 1 million LEGAL immigrants a year…What other country has that record?
If people didn’t come to the UnitedStates illegally, they wouldn’t face the hardships they do.
Oh boy. How sick and tired I am of this “disproportionally affecting”
they should just say things that make you happy
Probably the worst 2 neighborhoods in queens
No surprise, but the report does not mention the root cause of the problem : Illegal immigration. See, when the democrats flood the job market with cheap labor, the wages and salaries of the working class goes down. On the other hand, the more illegal residents flood these neighborhoods, the housing costs will increase, because of the increase of demand. Conclusion: Illegal immigration is a double edge sword for the working class; it lowers their salaries and increases their housing costs.
When will you realize you’re full of bigotry and hatred towards immigrants?
Explaining basic economics laws is not bigotry.
Lock up the people hiring illegals. Trump was convicted of using illegal alien Polish laborers. Mitt Romney was caught using illegal alien laborers. Corona and Elmhurst got flooded with illegal aliens during the Regan administrations amnesty, I know I was living here at the time. Republicans use illegal aliens to reinforce their low wage and anti union agenda.
That proves the point. Illegal immigration benefits the rich by providing them with cheap labor, while the working class suffers with low wages and higher rents
Everything that you said is completely false. ANOTHER racist Trump voter who’s completely wrong?! What are the odds!
I agree, as a Trump lover usually your posts are super-racist of course, but this time you’re right. As the article suggests, we need to increase the supply of affordable housing and to provide additional support for immigrants. I’m glad you’re on board!
Otherwise, you’d just be pretending to have your feelings so easily hurt. You’re not doing that are you?
or, instead, this is evidence we need a minimum wage that folks can actually live on
Minimum wage laws make things worse. It creates more unemployment specially for the people with very low skills.
Never Socialism- Please provide facts to back up your claims. Minimum wage laws do not make things worse the states with the lowest minimum wages like Mississippi Oklahoma Alabama and West Virginia all have the highest rates of unemployment. Fact!