Brookline Community Foundation Spotlight Event Focuses on Poverty and Income Inequality in Brookline

Nearly two hundred guests filled the Brookline Teen Center on February 26 for a sold-out event hosted by the Brookline Community Foundation (BCF). The event focused on poverty and income inequality in Brookline, featuring the findings of BCF’s most recent research publication, Understanding Brookline: A Report on Poverty, as well as a keynote address by Professor Barry Bluestone, Stearns Trustee Professor of Political Economy at the Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University. This report is one way that BCF is working towards alleviating and reducing poverty in Brookline, which is a top organizational priority as part of BCF’s three-year strategic plan, Brookline Forward.

BCF Executive Director Jenny Amory opened the event, sharing that many residents were surprised at the findings of the first Understanding Brookline report (issued in May 2013), which revealed that 13% of Brookline residents live at or below the poverty line (based on the 2010 U.S. Census). Even more surprising, Amory said, was the finding of this second report that “nearly 30%, or one in three, of Brookline residents live with economic insecurity – which is 300% of poverty.”

BCF Trustees Linda Olson Pehlke and Ashley Mason led the research for the report and both shared highlights of their findings during the event. Using data from the 2012 American Community Survey, Pehlke explained that nearly 30% of Brookline residents are potentially economically insecure based on an income level of no more than three times the poverty rate. For a family of four that means earning up to $70,476 (three times the corresponding poverty rate of $23,492). Financial insecurity often results from unemployment or underemployment, low wage jobs, illness and disability, lack of affordable housing and rising childcare and healthcare costs.

Mason helped the audience to visualize the reports findings asking them to stand up (and sit down) in various groupings that illustrated the demographics of poverty – including the findings that in 2012, poverty affected nearly 16% of women living in Brookline compared to nearly 10% of men and that only 13% of the poverty population lives in Brookline Housing Authority units (Brookline House Authority).

Professor Bluestone provided a national context for the report’s findings. He reminded the audience that until the early 1970s, a growing economy meant growing equality – as wages and income grew across all segments of the population. Today, as the economy grows so does the inequality – particularly true for Boston, which is ranked as the fourth most unequal city in America. Bluestone made the case for significant investments in early childhood education as one strategy to balance the playing field and give more children the chance for social mobility.

Amory closed the event with a call to action, “Let’s spread the word on the largely invisible picture of economic insecurity and poverty in town. If we don’t know the problems that exist, we can’t create change.”

To obtain a copy of Understanding Brookline: A Report on Poverty, please visit the BCF website or contact Reilly Zlab, Development and Communications Manager, at rzlab@brooklinecommunity.org or 617-566-4442.

Thank you to the generous corporate sponsors: Boston Portfolio Advisers; Bove & Langa, P.C.; Brookline Bank; Chobee Hoy Associates Real Estate, Inc.; Eastern Bank; Kaplan Construction; Law Office of Robert L. Allen, Jr., LLP; Mason Investment Advisory Services, Inc.; Smith, Sullivan and Brown, P.C.; and TripAdvisor Charitable Foundation.

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The Brookline Community Foundation shines a spotlight on community needs, inspires
philanthropy and awards strategic grants to build a more vibrant, engaged and equitable Brookline.