Geographies of insecure water access and the housing–water nexus in US cities

Katie Meehan; Jason R. Jurjevich; Nicholas M. J. W. Chun; Justin Sherrill

doi:10.1073/pnas.2007361117

New Research In

Edited by William A. V. Clark, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, and approved September 21, 2020 (received for review April 20, 2020)

Article Figures & SI

Figures

Tables

Download figure

Open in new tab

Download powerpoint

Fig. 1.
Households without piped water access in the United States, 2013 to 2017. This hex map depicts the spatial distribution of households without piped water access, with lighter colors indicating areas with higher numbers of unplumbed households. Shaded areas (in orange) indicate that sampling error is large relative to the estimate, due to the relatively small number of unplumbed households. Data source: US Census Bureau.
Download figure

Open in new tab

Download powerpoint

Fig. 2.
Plumbing poverty in the top 50 largest US metropolitan areas. Urban areas are plotted by share (percentage) of households without piped water access (y axis) against total number of households without piped water (x axis), adjusted by a log transformation. The dashed horizontal line represents the average share of unplumbed households in the 50 largest metros. Data source: US Census Bureau.

Tables

Figures

View popup

Table 1.

Number of households and people without piped water in 50 largest US metros

	Households				Individuals
Metro area	Estimate	MOE (±)	Share, %	MOE (±), %	Estimate	MOE (±)	Share, %	MOE (±), %
San Francisco	14,787	1,375	0.9	0.1	27,395	3,289	0.6	0.1
Portland	4,801	933	0.6	0.1	10,064	2,573	0.5	0.1
Milwaukee	3,341	891	0.5	0.1	8,673	2,555	0.6	0.2
San Antonio	3,370	684	0.5	0.1	10,098	2,086	0.5	0.1
Austin	3,130	709	0.4	0.1	7,904	2,156	0.4	0.1
Cleveland	3,743	758	0.4	0.1	8,814	2,299	0.4	0.1
Los Angeles	17,586	1,283	0.4	0.0	44,159	4,427	0.3	0.0
Memphis	1,814	508	0.4	0.1	4,100	1,239	0.3	0.1
New Orleans	1,854	442	0.4	0.1	3,661	954	0.3	0.1
New York	26,931	1,849	0.4	0.0	65,049	5,060	0.3	0.0
Phoenix	6,219	799	0.4	0.0	16,353	2,111	0.4	0.0
Seattle	5,389	964	0.4	0.1	9,840	2,044	0.3	0.1
Nashville	2,302	540	0.4	0.1	4,852	1,502	0.3	0.1
Sacramento	2,952	549	0.4	0.1	7,856	2,013	0.4	0.1
Houston	8,056	1,141	0.4	0.1	20,259	4,065	0.3	0.1
Boston	7,713	1,042	0.4	0.0	14,750	2,109	0.3	0.0
Richmond	1,660	551	0.4	0.1	3,262	1,231	0.3	0.1
Riverside	4,691	745	0.4	0.1	12,348	2,462	0.3	0.1
Pittsburgh	3,572	795	0.3	0.1	7,191	1,712	0.3	0.1
Miami	7,151	835	0.3	0.0	18,936	2,498	0.3	0.0
Detroit	5,490	930	0.3	0.1	11,560	2,203	0.3	0.1
Providence	1,368	415	0.3	0.1	2,999	911	0.3	0.1
Birmingham	1,299	459	0.3	0.1	3,046	1,268	0.3	0.1
Buffalo	1,559	393	0.3	0.1	2,641	807	0.2	0.1
San Diego	2,502	483	0.3	0.1	4,765	1,206	0.2	0.1
Cincinnati	1,907	505	0.3	0.1	4,680	1,654	0.2	0.1
San Jose	2,225	600	0.3	0.1	5,881	2,036	0.3	0.1
Columbus	3,397	773	0.3	0.1	7,971	2,564	0.3	0.1
St. Louis	3,348	675	0.3	0.1	7,110	1,806	0.2	0.1
Louisville	1,450	400	0.3	0.1	3,221	951	0.3	0.1
Salt Lake City	1,808	488	0.3	0.1	3,667	1,191	0.2	0.1
Virginia Beach	1,697	518	0.3	0.1	3,918	1,436	0.2	0.1
Atlanta	5,783	1,044	0.3	0.1	16,637	3,877	0.3	0.1
Kansas City	2,350	578	0.3	0.1	4,788	1,235	0.2	0.1
Oklahoma City	1,497	451	0.3	0.1	3,567	1,344	0.3	0.1
Las Vegas	2,095	513	0.3	0.1	6,390	1,890	0.3	0.1
Baltimore	2,800	479	0.3	0.0	6,004	1,258	0.2	0.0
Dallas-Fort Worth	6,651	911	0.3	0.0	16,395	2,523	0.2	0.0
Denver-Boulder	3,612	730	0.3	0.1	6,989	1,464	0.2	0.0
Philadelphia	6,056	930	0.3	0.0	13,529	2,553	0.2	0.0
Chicago	9,105	1,145	0.3	0.0	22,255	3,185	0.2	0.0
Raleigh-Durham	1,752	485	0.3	0.1	3,220	959	0.2	0.1
Minneapolis-St. Paul	3,556	767	0.3	0.1	7,301	2,177	0.2	0.1
Washington, DC	5,314	810	0.2	0.0	14,910	2,697	0.3	0.0
Tampa	2,853	482	0.2	0.0	6,475	1,286	0.2	0.0
Charlotte	2,155	494	0.2	0.1	5,268	1,408	0.2	0.1
Hartford	1,068	356	0.2	0.1	2,583	1,056	0.2	0.1
Jacksonville	1,268	426	0.2	0.1	2,910	1,048	0.2	0.1
Indianapolis	1,633	425	0.2	0.1	3,594	1,141	0.2	0.1
Orlando	1,607	449	0.2	0.1	4,157	1,123	0.2	0.0
Top 50 US metros	220,267	5,697	0.3	0.0	513,995	17,578	0.3	0.0

Urban areas are ranked (in descending order) according to share of households without piped water. Data source: US Census Bureau.

View popup

Table 2.

Characteristics of urban US households without piped water

	All households	Households without piped water
People of color	39.3% (±0.1%)	52.9% (±1.3%)
Median household income	$65,014 (±$180)	$33,152 (±$1,412)
Cost burdened	36.2% (±0.1%)	48.2% (±1.4%)
Mobile home	2.6% (±0%)	5.2% (±0.6%)
Renter	39.8% (±0.1%)	61.4% (±1.5%)

Percentages include all households (n = 64,435,664) and households without piped water (n = 220,267) in the 50 largest US metropolitan areas. Data source: US Census Bureau.

View popup

Table 3.

Results of the plumbing poverty logistic regression model

	B	SE		Lower	Odds Ratio	Upper
Intercept	−7.929	0.151
People of color	0.292	0.034	*	1.253	1.339	1.432
Household income	−0.003	0	*	−1.004	−1.003	−1.003
Percent of income spent on housing or rent	0	0.001
Mobile home	0.634	0.062	*	1.669	1.885	2.129
Renter	0.474	0.035	*	1.5	1.606	1.72
Gini coefficient (PUMA)	0.04	0.003	*	1.035	1.041	1.047
Index of dissimilarity (PUMA)	0.001	0.001

Negative odds ratios indicate the decline in likelihood for every unit change in the covariate. Nagelkerke value is 2.3%. The asterisk signals that predictors are significant at the 95% confidence level. Data source: US Census Bureau.