I’m Yves. In one sense, this article, focusing on how hollowed-out communities in the Rust Belt persist, is instructive by highlighting the small-scale, ignored yet important, disruptions. But on the other, it begs the question: “Don’t you understand poverty?”
Amanda McMillan LeCue, assistant professor of environmental sociology, Drexel University; conversation
It was midday on a Saturday, and Simonetta walked me through the open front door of her Southeast Chicago home, into the living room, and sat me on the couch next to her husband, Christopher.
In the 1980s, Christopher lived a few blocks away. US Steel South WorksHe has a high school diploma and earns three times the minimum wage — more than enough for Simonetta’s parents to buy a house before their first child was born. Southeast ChicagoSimonetta and Christopher’s work and family expectations were dictated by the steel industry.
Between 1875 and 1990, jobs were offered here. 8 steelworks A dense working-class neighborhood was built on swampy land 15 miles south of downtown Chicago. For the tens of thousands of workers who lived and worked in the area, steel was a rare occupation: unionized, blue-collar, and paying middle-class wages, with starting wages of roughly 10,000 in the 1960s. Three times the minimum wage.
Opportunities for advancement, benefits, and job security allowed workers to buy homes, shop locally, and save money. More than a job; it organized the spatial and social relations of the region.
Simonetta said the collapse was devastating for nearby residents. Factories are closing one after another In the last two decades of the 20th century, people began leaving to find new jobs (mostly in the service industry) farther away from the economic downturn in Southeast Chicago.
Gazing out at the silent street, I asked them, “Why did you stay here?”
Christopher pauses, then says simply: “We own the building.” After decades of paying off the mortgage, the couple owned the three-story row house outright. Sure, the corners were crumbling and the roof was sagging, but it was theirs. Its four walls had stood strong through the turmoil of the economic collapse and beyond. More than just an asset or a physical space, the building was the foundation of the couple’s stability.
Why do people stay in difficult situations?
Over the past 10 years, I asked why people stay. When the local economy collapses.
In my 2024 book,Who we are depends on where we are: Making a place in America’s Rust Belt” I used ethnographic research and interviews to study the long-term consequences of deindustrialization in a rural iron mining community in Wisconsin and in an urban manufacturing district surrounded by Chicago’s steel plants.
What causes deindustrialization? Macroeconomics and the Global Economy Technological innovation, trade agreements, environmental regulations, and increased competition — all these changes were localized. Towns and cities that had grown up around the iron-mining and steel-making industries in the second half of the 20th century suddenly lost their core blue-collar jobs.
The Rust Belt region, stretching from New York to Minnesota, has been Unemployment rate is nearly double digitsIndustrial closures leave hundreds of thousands unemployed Tidy up the house They tried to make their fortunes in the factories and mines of the American South, or in places that hadn’t been destroyed by the economic depression. In the process, these deindustrialized areas not only lost control of their residents, Their place in American history Economic progress, growth and resilience.
But not everyone is leaving.
For this study I More than 100 peoplePeople like Simonetta and Christopher tried to understand why people stayed in these neighborhoods as jobs disappeared and stores closed, repeatedly arguing that staying put brought them stability in a chaotic world.
Homeownership: Traps and How to Avoid Them
Those I spoke to often began with practical, economic concerns: the finances and freedom that come with homeownership.
For many long-time residents, moving elsewhere was financially impossible — falling house prices meant they would not be able to recoup their investment if they sold, and the relocation process itself was costly — but they also argued that homeownership offered them some stability during those early years of unemployment.
In the mid-20th century, a combination of high wages and federally guaranteed mortgages paved the way for blue-collar steel workers to become homeowners.
Beginning in the 1960s, Southeast Chicago went from being a predominantly rental neighborhood to one where 60 to 70 percent of housing was rented. Owner-occupiedFor Christopher, Simonetta and thousands of their neighbors, buying a home was a sound financial decision and a path to achieving the American middle-class goal of building wealth through private property ownership.
Of course, a home is more than just a material investment. Simonetta and Christopher’s house also told their family’s story. Simonetta’s parents immigrated from Mexico; Christopher’s grandparents came from Mexico in the early 20th century. Simonetta explained that because they grew up in the neighborhood, when they got married, they wanted to buy a home within walking distance of their parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
When they made their down payment in 1980, they benefited from a steep drop in home prices. Wisconsin Steel had just closed its nearby steel mill, and nearby home prices had plummeted. Already down 9%But they didn’t expect the region-wide housing bubble to burst.
Nearby home prices It started to fall As U.S. Steel gradually laid off workers in the 1980s and 1990s, Chicago experienced a decline in home prices. Even today, the average home price in Southeast Chicago is between $80,000 and $100,000. The average in Chicago is $330,000.When nearby factories closed, their family networks were left in limbo.
“My father and parents still lived nearby. We weren’t going anywhere. Where were we going?” Simonetta recalled. “We weren’t rich, because the factory had closed and we were unemployed!”
Even if the parents wanted to sell the house and start a new life somewhere more promising, the cost of doing so in a post-industrial economic downturn would be too great: Mass unemployment had turned what was once a solid investment into an almost unsellable liability.
What can you gain from staying at home?
The economics of homeownership limited their options, but owning property also offered a refuge when everything else was in disarray. Having a home, or “the building,” as Christopher called it, simplified their path forward: doing chores, commuting an hour or more into the suburbs to put food on the table, and looking out for each other.
Home is family, Socially constructed identity And then familiar experiences blend in. The people I spoke to were willing to drive me to their favorite lakes or parks, draw me maps of their favorite shops or hiking trails, point out historical markers that point to their industrial past. They celebrated the social networks that still anchor their identities: extended families, annual parades, regular school or work reunions.
Those interviewed were quick to acknowledge that the growing crisis of deindustrialization constrains choices and limits options, but generations of long-term residents remain connected to one another on the fragmented scaffolding of postindustrial social life.
“We survived, that’s why we didn’t leave,” Simonetta said. “The community has changed, but where else would we go? We’ve lived here for over 50 years… This is my neighborhood.”
“That’s how you destroy a neighborhood,” Christopher interjected. “By leaving!”
