With the giving season reminding us to be selfless and around 11.1 percent of the U.S. population living in poverty, the personal-finance website WalletHub followed up on its recent report on the Most Charitable States with an in-depth look at the Neediest Cities in America, as well as expert commentary.

Hoping to inspire goodwill toward the less fortunate, WalletHub compared more than 180 U.S. cities across 28 key metrics to determine where Americans are most economically disadvantaged. The data set includes factors like the child poverty rate, food insecurity rate and uninsured rate.

Neediest Cities in America

Detroit, Michigan was rated as the neediest city in the country, followed by Gulfport, MS; Brownsville, TX; Cleveland, OH; Shreveport, LA; Laredo, TX; Augusta, GA; New Orleans, LA; Corpus Christi, TX; and at number 10, Birmingham, AL.

Ranked number 11 through 20 on the neediest list were: St. Louis, MO; Fort Smith, AR; Memphis, TN; Philadelphia, PA; Los Angeles, CA; Fresno, CA; Baton Rouge, LA; Las Cruces, NM; New York, NY; and, at number 20, Newark, NJ.

Key Stats

Pearl City, Hawaii, has the lowest child poverty rate, which is 13.3 times lower than in Cleveland, Ohio, the city with the highest.

Pearl City, Hawaii, has the lowest adult poverty rate, which is 6.2 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest.

Overland Park, Kansas, has the fewest homeless persons (per 1,000 residents), which is 30.4 times fewer than in Honolulu, Hawaii, the city with the most.

South Burlington and Burlington, Vermont, have the lowest unemployment rate, which is 4.4 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest.

Pearl City, Hawaii, has the lowest share of uninsured residents, which is 11.8 times lower than in Brownsville, Texas, the city with the highest.

“In the neediest cities, a large number of people lack access to adequate food, health care and shelter, but there are plenty of other less obvious issues that also need to be resolved. The neediest cities need to address problems like high school dropout rates, lack of access to quality internet, overcrowded housing, poor mental health and more. Fixing these issues can lift people out of poverty, lower crime rates, and elevate people’s mental and physical health,” WalletHub Analyst Chip Lupo said. “Detroit is the neediest city, in large part due to the fact that it has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, at 7.4 percent. Motown also has the highest adult poverty rate and second-highest child poverty rate in the country, with more than a quarter of the city’s adults and close to half of its children living below the poverty line. In addition, safety is a big concern, as Detroit has the second-highest violent crime rate in the nation and the 29th-highest property crime rate. On top of those issues, Detroit has the third-highest share of households lacking complete plumbing facilities and the fifth-highest share without a computer.”

To view the full report, visit: https://wallethub.com/edu/cities-with-the-highest-and-lowest-population-in-need/8795

Expert Commentary

How has the composition of people in need (age, race, gender, etc.) changed in recent decades?

“Our nation is aging, and people are living longer, and that has created extraordinary demands for elder care and their health care. There are wait-lists for those that can afford assisted living and for those who cannot, many have moved in with their children or other seniors to manage costs of living. Some analysts who focus on aging have determined our nation is not prepared for what will be the highest percentage of seniors in our nation’s history in 2030. There is a shortage of elder care workers, and the industry typically has high turnover, and we have shortages of doctors, too.”

Salvatore Alaimo, PhD – Professor and Fulbright Scholar, Grand Valley State University

What are the main challenges facing low-income families today?

“The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) standard suggests that families should not spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing … Many low-income families spend up to half their income on housing. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), a family of four can expect to spend between $567 and $1,296 monthly on food … Again, like rent, the cost of nutritious food far exceeds the budget of most families, and many have no choice but to choose cheap, highly processed, ready-to-eat foods that are exceedingly high in salt, sugar, and saturated fats as a staple diet. According to Car and Driver, the average cost of keeping a used car on the road is $11,000 per year. Using public transportation can lower that $916/month obligation. Still, the trade-off in cities that do not have highly efficient rail or subway systems is the time spent waiting for a bus, the possibility of taking over an hour to travel round trip to and from work … and the need to spend additional money for a commercial ridesharing driver if you don’t have time for an extended commute, are running late, or the busses do not offer services in keeping with the hours you have to work.”

Jeffrey M. Bowen, MNO, CFRE – College Lecturer, Cleveland State University

How can charities and nonprofits most effectively serve the poor?

“I think philanthropy and nonprofits have a role in serving the poor, but it has been estimated that only about one third of philanthropic giving goes to causes that directly serve the poor. Most go to other subsectors like health, education, the arts, etc. We should not want to leave helping the poor up to a sector that exists in an environment of uncertainty and relies on voluntary action. Policy, more so than philanthropy, has the potential to make a larger difference by addressing root causes for what is arguably a complex problem that has been with us for centuries. By the time poor people get served by nonprofit organizations they are typically deep in this problem. I do believe that philanthropy and the nonprofit sector still have a role in filling the gaps and addressing the imperfections and policy flaws contained in government assistance. I would like to see the bridging of addressing shortages in the trades, health care, elder care, and other areas of employment by providing training opportunities, apprenticeships, signing incentives and more which could be a win for everyone. Maybe not exactly what was done in the Great Depression with the employment programs that helped build the nation’s infrastructure, but something similar. I am pleased with the rise in financial literacy programs within housing and other programs and that it is now required in some high schools.”

Salvatore Alaimo, PhD – Professor and Fulbright Scholar, Grand Valley State University

“Ask people what they need, listen carefully, take good notes, offer them as much as possible based on your resources, and put them in touch with other providers for needs you cannot meet. Capture and compile the data from those conversations to share with your staff, key volunteers, and board members so that these articulated requests for support become part of your daily operations plan and inform your long-range strategic plan. You may want to accelerate your ‘plan to embark on a strategic plan’ if the people you serve present a need for services that you cannot provide, especially if there are inadequate alternative providers in your community. You also want to share your findings and recommendations with your major funding partners, who most assuredly examine the best practices from across the country and look for ways to encourage collaborative ventures to meet those rising and changing needs. It is also important to practice Servant Leadership, keep the organization’s Mission, Vision, and Values at the forefront of every conversation, visit the service sites regularly, do your absolute best to meet resource requests from your program team, talk to your clients frequently, and treat everyone with respect and dignity.”

Jeffrey M. Bowen, MNO, CFRE – College Lecturer, Cleveland State University