Agenda - Planning Commission - 03/06/2014

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Equity Equity connects all residents to opportunity and creates viable housing and transportation options for people of all races, ethnicities, incomes and abilities so that all communities share the opportunities and challenges of growth and change. For our region to reach its full economic potential, all of our residents must be able to access opportunity. Our region is stronger when all people live in communities that provide them access to opportunities for success, prosperity, and quality of life. Promoting equity means: • Using our influence and investments to build a more equitable region; • Creating real choices in where people live and how people travel for all our residents, across age, race and ethnicity, economic means, and ability; • Investing in a mix of housing affordability along the region's transitways; • Engaging a full cross-section of the community in decision -making. Our region has some of the largest disparities by race and ethnicity of any large metropolitan area in the nation. The region will not be able to realize its full economic potential of these disparities persist: • In the Minneapolis -St. Paul metropolitan area, 25.7% of all people of color are poor, compared with 6.4% of white non -Latino people.3 This is the largest such disparity among the 25 largest metropolitan areas. The poverty rate for African Americans is 5.7 times greater than the poverty rate for white, non -Latino people —by far the largest such disparity among the 25 largest metropolitan areas. • The per capita personal income for Black and African American people ($15,336) is just 40% of the per capita personal income for white, non -Latino people ($37,943). • The percentage of adults of color who lack a high school diploma is nearly six times that of white, non -Latino adults. • The unemployment rate for people of color is more than twice that of white, non -Latino persons. The unemployment rate for Blacks and African Americans is 2.9 times the unemployment rate for white, non -Latino people —the biggest such disparity among the 25 largest metropolitan areas. • The homeownership rate among households of color is 49% of the homeownership rate among white, non -Latino households. Just 22% of Black or African American households own their homes. 3 Data from the 2012 American Community Survey. To enable comparisons with other regions, numbers describe the 13-county Minneapolis -St. Paul metropolitan statistical area. DRAFT FOR PUBLIC COMMENT Last revised: February 21, 2014 19