Poverty up and services down in Chicago's black neighborhoods

Abandoned home in Englewood

Chicago's transition to Detroit has begun.

From Reuters:

The Chicago Urban League found that mostly black areas have lost health clinics, social service agencies and other areas of support in recent years.

The study, which relied on findings and interviews from more than two dozen Chicago housing and transportation advocacy groups, found that predominantly black parts of the city were harder hit by the housing market collapse and slower to recover.

While home sale prices in Chicago overall lost 5 percent of their value between 2005 and 2013, homes in primarily African-American neighborhoods lost 25 percent to 71 percent of their value.

The study also found a lack of affordable housing in mainly black areas. For example, about three-quarters of renters in the troubled mostly black neighborhood of West Englewood spend 30 percent or more of their income on rent. In the city overall, only slightly more than half spend that much.

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• (Photos) The abandoned homes of Chicago's violent Englewood neighborhood