Building Bridges to Economic Mobility: Local Strategies for a More Equitable Future
- Anne Jensen and Jenn Sloan
- 7 minutes ago
- 4 min read
At Fourth Economy, we've observed a growing interest among local governments nationwide in strategies to advance economic mobility for their residents. For example, we have supported a Poverty Prevention and Economic Mobility plan for Gresham, Oregon; we are currently working on an Economic Mobility Strategy for Nashua, New Hampshire; and have seen economic mobility emerge as a priority in our ongoing work with Madison, Wisconsin. Below we dive into what economic mobility is, why it matters, and key mechanisms to advance it, including childcare, housing and income support.
What is economic mobility, and why is it important?
Economic mobility is a measure of how an individual’s economic status changes over time. It is frequently measured by income, especially by movement between income distributions within a generation or across generations.
How can Local Governments achieve economic mobility?
Enhancing residents’ economic status over a lifetime requires access to specific opportunities. These include skill-based training to prepare individuals for the workforce, diverse employment options offering career growth, incomes that cover basic necessities like food, housing, and healthcare, and the ability to accumulate assets such as savings, investments, and property.
We believe that advancing economic mobility is not solely an individual responsibility - it requires systems and institutions to create opportunities for growth.
For residents in communities across the country, economic mobility can feel out of reach due to systemic barriers and an associated lack of opportunities. These barriers include limited access to education, healthcare, childcare, and affordable housing. When combined with an absence of economic opportunity, systemic barriers can trap residents in poverty and hinder their ability to achieve economic prosperity. Factors such as race, gender, and geographic location further influence economic mobility, creating unique challenges and disparities that require tailored solutions.
This is where cities come in. Let’s look at Nashua, NH. Liz Hannum, Nashua’s Director of Economic Development, explains:
“With an industrial background and a fairly homogenous population, although still heavily immigrant-based, Nashua has quickly become one of the most diverse cities in New Hampshire. With in-migration and a worldwide pandemic came challenges that we were unprepared for.
In our master planning process, the community identified economic mobility for everyone in the community as our top economic development priority. We heard over and over from those new to Nashua as well as life-long Nashuans that it was becoming unaffordable to continue living and working in the City.
It was important for the City to get involved in economic mobility at this time because there is already some work being done by nonprofits and other entities, but no coordinated efforts were taking place. We saw gaps in service that would put those working to build upward mobility back at square one when there wasn’t a support system between levels of service. We think Nashua can play that critical role of bridging the gap and coordinating with our nonprofit partners to be more efficient and effective in our efforts.”
Three Core Strategies to Advance Economic Mobility: Childcare, Housing, and Income Support
Childcare is essential because it allows working families to remain in the workforce. Additionally, enhancing early childhood education programs associated with childcare can help boost long-term economic outcomes by ensuring that children have access to high-quality, supportive care and equal educational opportunities.
One promising practice is Nurtury’s Family Child Care Incubator, an initiative in Roxbury, Massachusetts. This program provides educators with support and temporary program space to start their family childcare business while searching for permanent locations. Nurtury especially invests in women of color and works to increase the total number of family childcare businesses in the Mission Hill neighborhood.
This initiative not only expands childcare options for residents but also supports community economic development through entrepreneurial growth.
Housing is another critical area that for promoting economic mobility. A lack of stable housing can result in job loss, persistent homelessness, and other challenges. Eviction prevention programs are a promising practice to mitigate homelessness and helps preserve economic opportunity for all. For example, Just Mediation Pittsburgh is a volunteer-led program resolves landlord-tenant disputes before they escalate to court. With a corps of 70 trained community mediators, the program fosters common ground between landlords and tenants.
In 2021, Just Mediation intervened in 220 landlord-tenant cases, achieving a 93% settlement rate in cases where both the landlord and the tenant agreed to mediation
Income support is a final key component of economic mobility because it is typically measured by income and generational wealth accumulation. Guaranteed Basic Income (GBI) is a promising practice in this area. GBI provides regular cash payments to individuals or households with no work requirements or conditions, aiming to achieve economic security and improve socioeconomic outcomes that enable increased economic mobility.
During the COVID-19 pandemic GBI pilots gained momentum, and emerging data from these shows promising results. We explore these findings in a future blog post.
Understanding the factors that enable or restrict upward economic mobility is building a more equitable future. By addressing systemic barriers and implementing strategies like childcare, housing and income support, communities can create a more just and equitable society where everyone has the opportunity to achieve economic success.
To learn more about these topics, here are a few of the resources we used to inform this blog post:
Be on the lookout for a future blog post where we dive into Guaranteed Basic Income as an intervention to support economic mobility. Interested in diving deeper? Reach out today to discuss strategies to increase economic mobility for residents in your community. In the meantime, check out our work advancing economic mobility in Gresham, Oregon, Nashua, New Hampshire and Madison, Wisconsin.