Recent poverty statistics in the U.S. have raised fundamental questions regarding
the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs over the last four decades. While
discussing the historical backdrop against which many of the area-based
initiatives were designed, this paper provides an analysis of changes in poverty
rates in the U.S., particularly in California and Los Angeles County. The
findings suggest that the changing nature of poverty, including its spatial
diffusion over the last three decades, may require alternatives to the
reemerging spatial targeting practices of centrist governments in the U.S. and
the U.K.
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