Barriers for the poor in the Deep South cities

Source: A lonely road (The Washington Post)

This article explains the difficulty and hardship of the poor people, in particular single mom with children, about job seeking. It depicts the one single mom story. In particular, as the Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis related research has already addressed, the longer commuting distance and hours (moreover, riding bus and transferring to get to train, and walking) and policy change to reduce the benefit for the jobless-poor have been critical. 

In particular, the poor of the metropolis in the Deep South have faced more hardship after 1996 reform by government of the president Bill Clinton. Originally, the purpose of the reform was to “transform a broken system” and end a “cycle of dependence”. The wide latitude given by the federal government affected negatively the lives of the jobless poor. The safety net has widen for the poor who can hold down jobs, but it has shorten for those who cannot. Actually, this is because the bulk of the money was used for plug general budget holes. Thus, five states in the Deep South—Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina—have poor results to reduce the poverty. 

Author emphasizes the difficulty of the poor finding work because the poor cannot afford to live in city centers or near the places where they are more accessible for jobs. Moreover, due to the commuting issue, they depend on more walking, hitching rides or laborious public transportation commutes. This lack of physical mobility in these area is related to the economic immobility. The poor in these areas has the lowest chances to move up the income ladder. Related to this issue, the wealthier tax payers have no interest for the state or city government to invest the money in improving public transportation. 

When it comes to this issue, I think that improving commuting mode—that is, improving public transportation system and car-ownership— is more critical. Through it, the poor can have more accessibility for jobs. However, this approach could be too simplistic. In this article, the single mom has more difficulties, such as taking care of the children, housing. These connect the land regulations and other social welfare policies. There is no future for the poor without deleting the barriers. 

The following images show what went wrong with the Deep South? (the images come from the original articles [http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2015/12/28/deep-south-4/])