Good for the city of Columbus to take a serious look at the economic challenges faced by minority residents, especially women. Now begins the harder work of assisting them with effective pathways to financial stability.
Offering meaningful resources to help women build security for their families is one of the best investments the city can make for its own future.
The picture painted by the Financial Empowerment Roadmap is distressing. Among the findings:
• Black women are the single largest group in poverty in Columbus, accounting for 24% of all those in poverty.
• 40% of all households are headed by single parents, with 73% of them headed by women, and an even higher percentage — 82% — of Black single parent households headed by women.
• The median annual income of all Columbus households is $52,000, but white and Asian households exceed the average ($60,000 and $55,000, respectively) and Blacks make 40% less than whites at $36,000.
It is important to note that this study was not done in a vacuum but is part of a continuing effort begun before the administration of Mayor Andrew J. Ginther for Columbus to research and develop public policy aimed at improving the financial security of Columbus and Franklin County residents.
Appropriately, that work has roots in a 2014 report and implementation plan to reduce infant mortality in greater Columbus. The disparities and lack of opportunity that show up in greater economic distress for Black families are apparent also in data identifying a far greater rate of infant mortality for Black babies.
A lack of stable housing is one of the key factors holding back women, and Black women especially, from more promising futures.
Dr. Patricia Gabbe, who founded the Moms2B program with Ohio State University 10 years ago, noted the correlation with housing and economic distress in this latest study. “Once a woman has stable housing, then her children have stable schools. There are so many things in helping a woman be successful if she has a stable house,” Gabbe said.
That is another reason the city’s work to improve affordable housing stock, in collaboration with Franklin County and area nonprofits, is a key strategy to tackle a persistent disparity in the economic outlook for central Ohio residents. Efforts to erase an identified gap of 54,000 affordable housing units needed for low-income families must continue, especially as the region is predicted to gain another 1 million residents by 2050.
Other work in the region that the report acknowledges as consistent with financial empowerment includes the launch of the Columbus Women’s Commission under Ginther’s administration, a new policy by the city of paid family leave and a pledge for pay equity, as well as the county commissioners’ Blueprint for Reducing Poverty in Franklin County.
This latest study was conducted before COVID-19 exacerbated threats of eviction and utility shut-offs.
The Dispatch salutes the city for continuing to identify the need and to develop policy for reducing the disparities of opportunity that plague women and minorities. When they have improved resources of financial education, banking, workforce development and affordable housing, all of central Ohio will prosper.