The Yonkers Family and Community Project

Following a federal court order to remedy long-standing racial segregation in public housing and in schools, the city of Yonkers, NY built 200 units of low-rise public housing in mostly white, middle-income neighborhoods. Subsequently, a group of low-income, African-American and Latino families moved into the housing.

The goal of this study was to examine the impact of neighborhood change on low-income parents and their children. Researchers at the Center followed 333 African-American and Latino families, and compared the children, youth and adults who stayed in poor minority neighborhoods to those who moved to more affluent white neighborhoods.

The study provides unique information on how neighborhoods and desegregation influence school engagement and achievement, peer networks, juvenile delinquency, employment, job attainment and stability, parenting, family functioning, and health status.

Funding Sources: National Science Foundation; Ford Foundation.