Project Idea

Denver Poverty map

TL;DR

Build a map showcasing the poverty rate of census block groups in the Denver area.

Stretch goals

• Build a comparison tool, to see how these poverty rates have changed over time.
• Help create a supplemental poverty measure for Denver

Real Live Example

Poverty in NYC

The Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity (NYC Opportunity) built the Poverty in NYC map as a resource with which to better target and launch anti-poverty initiatives. Using open data from the New York City portion of the American Community Survey (ACS) as well as additional variables added by the Poverty Research Team this project furthers the city’s goal of making equity a core component of local government.

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recommended that the first step in creating the poverty threshold was to compute a nationwide threshold based on the distribution of expenditures on food, clothing, shelter, and utilities by a reference unit composed of two-adult, two-child families. The Census’ Supplemental Poverty Measure threshold is also based on the measure of expenditures on the same group of necessities.

How NYC’s Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) differs from the Census measure:

1. The SPM expands the reference family to include all Consumer Units in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Expenditure Survey with exactly two children, not just those with two adults.
2. The SPM is based on the 33rd percentile of the expenditure distribution, not a fixed percentage of the median of the distribution.
3. The SPM uses a five-year moving average of expenditure data. The NAS had proposed a three-year moving average.
4. The SPM creates separate thresholds to reflect differences in housing status for owners with a mortgage, owners free and clear of a mortgage, and renters. The NAS-based research had used a common threshold for these groups.

Other resources/examples/notes/etc

Denver, Colorado (CO) poverty rate data - information about poor and low-income residents living in this city