Exhibit III-24 shows areas of slightly concentrated poverty distributed across Lake
County townships (Avon, Benton, Cuba, Grant, Fremont, Libertyville, Moraine, Shields,
Warren, Wauconda, Waukegan and Zion), several of which provide local food pantries
and emergency assistance. The most deeply concentrated census tracts of poverty (30
percent or more of population below the poverty level) are located in the Lake County
Consortium cities of North Chicago and Waukegan. As indicated in Exhibit III-8b above,
North Chicago is comprised evenly of White (33 percent), Black/African-American (30.5
percent), and Hispanic (28 percent) residents, while Waukegan is majority Hispanic
(53.1 percent) and has lower concentrations of White (23.9 percent) and Black/AfricanAmerican (16.2 percent) residents.
On a nationwide basis, the following patterns have been observed by social scientists,
such as John Yinger, who has observed and documented how settlement patterns differ
by race. According to Yinger, Hispanic and African-American populations tend to be
more concentrated than other races, and, when such concentrated populations are
coupled with the higher poverty rates found among these racial/ethnic groups, the
resulting concentrated poverty can magnify the disadvantages facing residents of such
areas.10
Free Market Analysis
To provide local governmental support in mitigating this national demographic trend, the
County hired AREA to perform a “Free Market Analysis.” The Free Market Analysis,
also known as a “Race and Income Index” and “Colorblind Analysis,” is used by housing
researchers and recognized by HUD as a method for determining the extent to which
the settlement patterns of racial and ethnic groups can be explained solely by income.
While it is a reality that households with similar incomes often concentrate near each
other (e.g., low-income residents often live in areas with lower housing costs and
higher-income residents often live in areas with higher housing costs) the following
analysis examines the extent to which different racial and ethnic groups are spread
throughout Lake County as much as would be possible factoring out the impact of
income on housing decisions. While households choose their home based upon a
variety of factors in addition to income, this analysis presents the possibility that housing
markets in Lake County are not free of intended exclusion based upon race and/or
ethnicity.
The analysis requires a review of data on the income levels of households in a census
tract by race and ethnicity. Tract-level data are then compared to the data on income
and race at a larger market level, in this case Lake County. AREA conducted this
analysis for the 150 census tracts in Lake County by performing the following
comparison:
10
Yinger, John, “Evidence on Discrimination in Consumer Markets,” The Journal of Economic
Perspectives, Vol. 12, No. 2, (Spring 1998), pp. 23-40, published by the American Economic Association.
37
APPLIED REAL ESTATE ANALYSIS, INC.
LAKE COUNTY, ILLINOIS