Youngstown Leads Nation's Cities In "Concentrated" Poverty

A new study says Youngstown has the nation's highest concentration of poverty among the 100 biggest metro areas. The report was released Thursday by the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington, D.C. It says Youngstown, still struggling from the loss of steel industry jobs, has a concentrated poverty rate of 49.7 percent. Concentrated poverty is the share of poor people in areas with poverty rates of 40 percent and higher. Cleveland has a 42 percent concentrated poverty rate, Cincinnati 31.6 percent, Toledo 30.6 percent, Columbus 22.7 percent and Akron 22 percent. A prosecutor and judge in Youngstown both tell The Vindicator newspaper that high poverty rates contribute to rising crime.