ATLANTA — In Atlanta, somewhere between prosperity and poverty is the economic divide.
The median household income for a Black family is $28,105 compared to $83,722 for a white family, according to the Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative.
Longtime Atlanta resident Marlo Nash comes from humble beginnings.
“I grew up on Cleveland Avenue for a lot of years. Single parent household. Oftentimes, she would have to work double shifts,” he said about his mother.
Nash is now a successful professional chef and culinary entrepreneur. He realizes not everyone in Atlanta gets a chance to reach their full potential.
“People did not have access to chase dreams. A lot of times people didn't even have dreams,” he said.
Shirley Richards lives in the West End and feels the economic divide between prosperity and poverty.
“It’s a lot of changes. The rent is high. My neighbor across the street moved away because they couldn’t afford to rent there,” Richards said.
Richards says for many families budgets are limited.
“Well, you got to have two jobs now. One job don't do it,” Richards said.
Alex Camardelle is the vice president of research and policy of the Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative. He explained what Richards and many longtime Black residents are facing in Atlanta, a situation that's nearly impossible to get out of.
The data proves it.
According to researchers from Harvard and UC-Berkley, if a person is born into poverty in Atlanta, there is just a 4% chance of escaping it in their lifetime. The study was released in 2013. The Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative has been building upon this research and says this statistic hasn't budge.
“It is still relevant and it’s current,” he said. “We need to understand and disrupt the kind of barriers that are locking folks into the lower rungs of the economic ladder.”
Black households make up 48% of the city’s households, but they only own just 17% of the city’s housing wealth, according to the Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative.
“It's something that we've been grappling with for a very long time and the solutions that have been introduced to address this statistic have largely failed," Camardelle said, "if not been as successful as they need to be to help shift the narrative and eventually shift outcomes."
More than a third of Black people in the city of Atlanta have zero or negative net worth, he added.
“The wealth of white households is 46 times what it is for Black households in the city,” he said.
Nash hopes that more Atlanta residents can experience the type of success that he’s been able to reach. He knows that it's a dream realized.
“I still have to pinch myself sometimes for all the things I've been able to do,” he said.
For more on how the Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative is trying to close the wealth gap, click here.