Gentrification and Suburban Displacement

Abstract

This study explores the impact of two increasingly powerful processes in the transformation of the U.S. metropolis — gentrification in the city and rising poverty in the suburbs. Some studies on the rise of suburban poverty argue that gentrification-induced displacement is a causal factor with poorer households moving to the suburbs because they are unable to afford to live in gentrified central locations. This process of a ‘great inversion’ suggests that high-income groups are increasingly living in the city and low-income people are forced to the periphery. While confirming such theories has enormous implications for the socio-spatial arrangement of the U.S. metropolis, there is little empirical investigation to test the theory that gentrification is a contributing cause of either suburban or urban poverty or both. In this study we ask the following questions: 1) does gentrification lead to the displacement of households from low-income but gentrifying neighborhoods in the city? and 2) are displaced households more likely to move to the suburbs over city neighborhoods? Using a unique dataset on residential mobility in the city of Columbus, we find that households are more likely to move from gentrifying than non-gentrifying low-income neighborhoods in the city. However, they are more likely to move to other city neighborhoods rather than suburbs. While we find evidence of displacement to the suburbs, the more likely scenario is that households in the city are being displaced to other city neighborhoods because of gentrification.