The agency ACT Rochester and the Rochester Area Community Foundation have released a report which finds the status of African American and Latino residents of the nine-county Rochester region lags significantly behind the rest of the state.
The report “Hard Facts: Race and Ethnicity in the Rochester Area” looks at the educational and economic achievements among persons of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, based on census and New York State Education Department data. It finds the African American child poverty rate in the region at 50 percent; 42 percent for Latinos. The statewide averages are 33 percent and 34 percent. Only 13 percent of African American children are proficient in the English Language by grade three, compared with 31 percent statewide. For Latinos the numbers are 19 percent versus 30 percent.
For Rochester region African Americans, median household income is just over $27,000 a year compared with more than $41,000 statewide. For Latinos: about $30,000 versus about $40,000.
Rochester currently ranks as the 4th poorest city in the nation. The report concludes that wouldn’t be the case if these averages could be brought in line with the state averages.
One of the major reasons for the disparity: lack of home ownership by African Americans and Latinos in the Rochester area takes away one of the major ways one generation transfers wealth to the next.