Trajectories of Deprivation: Linking Neighborhood Change with Presence of Social Service Organizations

ABSTRACT Social service organizations are important in the reproduction of social inequality. Given the significant changes in neighborhood poverty composition and rise in heterogeneity among poor neighborhoods in the previous three decades, this study asks: how does a neighborhood’s poverty trajectory shape its likelihood of organizational deprivation? Leveraging geolocated administrative data on food pantries, 2000 decennial census data, and the 2010–14 American Community Survey, we examine (1) the extent to which neighborhood poverty trajectory is linked to the presence or absence of a food pantry and (2) how neighborhood racial composition is implicated in this relationship. Results indicate that poor neighborhoods are more likely to possess a pantry than non-poor neighborhoods, but newly poor neighborhoods are more likely to be organizationally deprived than historically poor neighborhoods. Moreover, as the portion of Black residents increases, so too does the likelihood of pantry presence, regardless of poverty trajectory. Findings suggest both neighborhood poverty trajectory and racial composition are implicated in organizational deprivation.