Sixty-four percent of Rhode Island’s children were non-white Hispanics in 2010, down from 73 percent a decade earlier…”And I have three children, and hopefully they will have children,” State Sen. Juan Pichardo, D-Providence, said. “When you look at the future of Rhode Island there’s no doubt the Hispanic community is going to continue to grow.”
Rhode Island’s growing numbers of young racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately living in poverty, with the vast majority residing in cities with rates of child impoverishment well above the state average.
Thirty-six percent of Hispanic and 34 percent of black children in the state between 2008 and 2010 came from families with incomes below the federal poverty level, according to U.S. Census data. That compares with 12 percent of white children.
And in 2010, two-thirds of the state’s minority children were from Central Falls, Pawtucket, Providence or Woonsocket, according to newly compiled statistics from Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, a child advocacy organization. The child poverty rate in Central Falls and Providence is 36 percent. It is 35 percent in Woonsocket and 27 percent in Pawtucket. The 2010 federal poverty level for a family of four is just over $22,000.
“Concentrated poverty is becoming more concentrated,” said Elizabeth Burke Bryant, the organization’s executive director.
While advocates say poor children are more likely to have social, behavioral, health and other problems than those in more affluent areas, living in what’s called concentrated poverty exacerbates the ill effects of being poor.
[…]
