ALABAMA: Towns Where People Live On $300 Weekly - How Poor Are They?

all right everyone I am in rural Alabama uh let me show you where I'm kind of in the eastern half of the state in the middle you can see the blue dot there that's where I am with the white ring around it see Atlanta up there to the North and the East and Birmingham a little bit to the North and the West Montgomery right below to the West Montgomery is the state capitol of Alabama um these towns that I'm about to visit have really low per capita incomes I'm talking three to four hundred dollars a week so I'm curious to see what they look like uh is it relative is the low cost of living so low that you can live on that because I think we all agree that in most parts of the U.S we cannot live on three to four hundred dollars a week so I'm curious to see what it looks like the town I'm about to enter believe it or not there's a town here it's called Camp Hill this is one of the poorest Towns at least as far as the numbers are concerned in the entire state of Alabama so I yeah you want to start here see what it looks like um Camp Hill's population estimate whoop somebody trying to call me anyway uh the population in 2021 has 990 people this is being retaken by Nature isn't it yeah absolutely but surely uh anyway yeah 990 and 2021 was the estimate 1980 was Peak population that was uh the population was 1 628 so the town has lost pretty significant amount of people poverty is really high here 36.9 percent that's three and a half times the U.S poverty rate which is a little over 11 percent per capita income here is 15 900. that's just uh right at three hundred dollars a week that people who live here that's what they live on median home value is 75 800. now the median home value across the country across the United States is 428 000 so uh yes that's far lower so clearly housing is a lot less expensive see what else we can see now I am approaching downtown now the town was incorporated in 1895 um not a lot of a lot more information about it so uh you can see a lot of um Decay though already as I approached the downtown this must be the main intersection the stop sign here yeah you could see a light up there see there's a stoplight there but uh it does it is not working I just have a stop sign here instead so here's downtown and um it does not look good wow I'll just kind of go slow through here take a drive through and then I'll come back and go the other way uh wow yeah there is um not much Happening Here let me turn around and go back the other way here's another another home being retaken by or reclaimed by Mother Nature it's been like that for a long time uh let me tell you what day it is uh it's Wednesday it's about 10 30. actually 10 45 A.M uh January 11th I believe temperature is pretty nice it's uh 60 61 degrees I'm actually in t-shirt t-shirt it's not uncomfortable anyway um yeah let's take another look at this downtown wow had read a travel article from a travel blogger who said that his mother had grew up here and then he brought her here after like 30 years and she said it was a shell of its former self uh interesting article but anyway yeah she's not kidding it's definitely not much Happening Here uh why don't I uh go take a look at a neighborhood or two yeah so I just turned around I'm going to uh oh wow look at this another house disintegrating this property is in violation of ordinance I'm guessing something to do with the fact that it's falling apart anyway uh yeah I'm gonna go up to this main intersection of downtown with the stoplight that doesn't work and make a right here and uh oh see what else we can find so people live on are people who live in this town their average income is 300 a week but we already know the cost of living is very low so let's uh let's see what the homes look like but already they don't look too bad that's pretty nice uh to the left here that's really nice it's a beautiful home yeah doesn't look bad at all right let me look around a little bit more I'm just driving around the streets of the town somebody's got a horse he's checking me out hey there fella love that big porch big huge fence around the yard though I wonder what that means because uh I mean none of the other houses have it some pretty houses here though I like this one right here that's really nice you've got um house here though again another one being reclaimed by Nature with the population loss uh I guess that's to be expected another one empty house here yeah you're going to see a few of these I suppose here in the town um but there are some beautiful old homes here and there's some nearer modern ones right here very well kept on both sides of the street interesting Town um clearly uh the town is or the town's Prime is long gone but uh pretty decent neighborhoods actually pretty nice neighborhoods so uh yeah not bad Nature's taking this one um we got a couple churches here wow look straight ahead though look at that house yeah that one is uh that one is going quick let me see if I can get the camera out the window and give you a good look yeah I love that front porch that was probably pretty awesome house back in the day and then you got some sort of business here that's closed the town's fortunes definitely are not good but uh or have declined if you will but this is that the people live in actually look pretty nice beautiful old church over here really nice fascinating um all right uh yeah I'm gonna head to the next town now I am in a town called Dadeville right now I think it's Dadeville Australian Siri calls it dadville but I don't I don't think that's right I guess someone can explain it in the comments I am heading into downtown of Dadeville right now now anyway Dadeville as I drive into downtown uh first of all the population in 2021 3051 people Peak population Was 1980 they were 3263 so the town has lost a little bit of population it's not really growing but it's not dying hard either um the downtown doesn't look bad got a County Courthouse here Tallapoosa County Courthouse built in 1960 it says it's a neoclassical architecture Maybe uh the median age here is 40 years old all these towns are a little bit older and uh well let's look at the per capita numbers per capita income here is 17 367 dollars a year so that is 334 dollars a week that people here live on that doesn't seem possible does it but let's see let's check out some of the neighborhoods or I will be I'm going to continue my drive through downtown median household income by the way is 24 000 722. 24 700 a year to live on here that median household that's really low too it just doesn't seem possible the median home value in this town is 101 100. so yeah that's uh a quarter of the United States so one thing's for sure if your housing's this much cheaper uh that's a lot less of your money being spent and you've got more to spend on other things right now I'm gonna look around a little bit more but right now it looks pretty nice doesn't it the town looks real nice uh there is some beautiful architecture here let's see look at this house right here as I hit the stop sign that is something there that is a beautiful house it's really old could use a little TLC but uh you just you can't find a house that looks like that anymore isn't that beautiful uh let me look at a couple other neighborhoods let's see what we can see yeah this is what you see everywhere you drive here these are not the homes of a really poor town are they uh here let me stop here look at this beautiful house there beautiful house this yellow one beautiful house here I wonder how much these houses sell for this is a beautiful home here that looks like it's been renovated which I'm happy to see look at all that woodwork absolutely gorgeous I'm glad to see him fixing that um yeah this is pretty much representative of the whole town amazing I saw the numbers for this town and uh and these other towns I've you know I thought there's no way you could live on that houses must look really bad but they don't really nice looking town you can tell that in the summer when everything's green uh it's absolutely beautiful a lot of Park area scattered throughout now this is uh downtown right here that I'm driving back into I think we've seen enough here so I'm going to head to the next town I'm gonna do that right now as I drive into downtown again might as well look at this County Courthouse again that's a beauty yeah I like that all right on to the next town all right everybody I am entering the town of Lafayette the bet is a beautiful Church it's a gorgeous building I'm gonna head into downtown here uh Lafayette 2022 estimate and uh 2590 people uh I'll tell you the peak population but first let me give you a look at this beautiful Courthouse very beautiful uh anyway I'm going to swing around take a look at the downtown a little bit closer the peak population was in 1980 like all these other towns 3647 people so it's lost well over a thousand people that's a pretty good population loss turned back into downtown here let's get another look median age here's 45 so this is an older town per capita income is twenty thousand one hundred and seventy a year uh that's 385 dollars a week again that's not much take another look at this Courthouse see that big statue on the roof or on the Dome beautiful medium home by our median home value let me say that right 110 700 so again about a quarter of that of the rest of the U.S I guess I'll just drive right into residential poverty rate or poverty rate is 16.6 so it's a little bit better than the past two towns this town has a very famous person that was born here so I'll tell you about him in just a second all right I'm out on foot because I want to show you a couple things here old theater right here though it uh clearly isn't open and operating which is sad I'm going to walk past this County Courthouse again sure is beautiful it was built in 1899 but anyway the resident I was telling you about that was born here is Joe Lewis the boxing Legend also known as the brown bomber he is among the greatest if not the greatest boxer in history he had 25 consecutive title defenses more than any other boxer he had the longest reign as champion in United States history and he is widely considered to be the first African-American hero in the United States so he was born here and they have a statue that's what I'm walking upon right now I want to see it and there it is yeah boxing Legend Joe Lewis see what else it says here that's pretty cool isn't it let me swing over around so I can get you a good look the court courthouse in the background a beautiful Courthouse uh Joe Lewis Barrel World Heavyweight Champion 1937-1949. be born 1914 died 1981. here in Chambers it was born here in Chambers County in this town he's buried in the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia now that is cool that's a nice gesture put him there anyway so there it is yeah Lafayette birthplace of Joe Lewis this little small town humble beginnings for sure right uh let's take a look at this town I think this one is empty perhaps about to be renovated there's nothing saving this one though looks like it caught on fire Maybe yeah that's uh that one's done for two dogs but no cat three dogs they're eyeballing me too oh there they go oh look here see the courthouse up there this is a prison I believe a little small prison if I was to guess probably one of the town's top employers there's downtown right up ahead so I'll take a look around a little bit more how you doing fella huh you're gonna be famous now you don't care do you like why why are you bothering me this looks like an old train station I think it's a museum though they've got a caboose here a couple of picnic tables I guess if you wanted to uh have a picnic here you could right next to this caboose it's really old huh and look at this big beautiful grand house over here across the street some nice houses here well I got something going on here possibly an old factory of some sort at one time looks like it's abandoned now though huh oh complex here I wonder what this was it's empty now interesting neighborhoods though huh look at this I mean I'm blocked one block off downtown it's like a jungle a sort of jungle of course those look more like reeds uh a couple of big beautiful houses though right here they could use a little TLC but uh well those could but not that one whoo look at that one that is a beautiful home so was this one and so is this one whoa okay really the average person's living on 334 dollars a week here doesn't look like it does it beautiful homes again uh so fascinating to me how really the poverty rates are just so relative because uh this is a nice town with nice homes now that 334 a week isn't getting you very far in the coastal cities like Boston and San Francisco but here people live pretty good all right well I'm gonna head to the one more town definitely seen better days here for that house pretty sure that one's empty all right I am entering the town of Five Points this is not the Final Destination it's just on the way a little more than a wide spot in the road this is the downtown right here yeah that's uh that's seen better days I wonder what that was some sort of business it looks like Dollar General they're always here a bit of a junkyard going on here I bet there's some Automotive Treasures in there what do you think look at that band there panel van it looks like cool anyway continuing on okay I'm entering the town of Roanoke it was named after the Roanoke in Virginia just so you know entering the downtown look at this church it's a beauty uh really interesting downtown yeah they got a big theater here to the right it's really nice got a few empty buildings here but uh wow a lot of character here take a left here hmm well there are there is some Decay that's for sure still really interesting I'm gonna come through downtown from a different angle show you what that looks like and I'll tell you the numbers of the town seeing some beautiful houses here wow there's another one right there yeah holy cow there's some in the other direction I'll show you those in a second I'm gonna head back into downtown first tell you the population 2022 estimate 52.70 Peak population was in 2000 not not 1980. 65 63 so uh yeah 6 500 people 20 some years the town has lost over 1200 or around 1200 people that's pretty significant per capita income here is 21 273. that's 409 dollars a week median home value is 114 500. those houses I just showed you they've got to be worth more than that though and just uh really kind of digging this downtown even though there's some definitely some uh decay this cool theater here it looks like they've gutted out huh poverty rate is 20.6 so that's a little bit up there uh median age is 44. so it's a bit of an older town Ella Smith was born here and I grew up here she is the creator of the Ella Smith dolls ten percent of our dolls were made as African-American she was the first doll maker to do that as I understand and if you can get a hold of some of her dolls so now uh there were some bucks anyway I'm going to look around this town I did a preliminary drive-through there's some interesting stuff here including right here on the left I don't know what's going on here it looks like a big what is it what's going on there come back take another look at that I see a big boy see Burger thing but there's no big boy here uh I don't know what this is white elephant Center shop old gas station that's amazing looking well uh we are in Alabama somebody scrolled Roll Tide there got a building here that looks like it's been abandoned not sure what that was see what else is up here well despite the low incomes make no mistake there are some beautiful houses here look at this one I mean that's a masterpiece yeah that's beautiful uh that one there is real nice too it needs a little work but uh yeah that's beautiful uh well I'm a couple blocks out of downtown not sure what this is here hmm yeah look at this from a different direction you can hear the train coming this might have had something to do with the train again I'm see about two blocks off downtown let's see what's going on over here huh well we got a got a couch a train anybody need a couch I got a couple buildings here nature is reclaiming it's like a little small shack could have even been an outhouse Maybe huh there's downtown there this is kind of a back road coming off of it see what's down here right away that's a that's a beauty we got some beautiful old homes here I don't know what's going on there wow looks like something burned down there look at that bear in the tree huh uh there's something up here it's going to show you this looks like maybe it's being renovated look at that that was a grand old beauty at one time uh sadly it is in terrible shape wow that was some house back in the day though huh how cool is that uh we got an ice skating rink out here pretty nice day for it it's 62 degrees right now as I give you this nice look of the Main Street Roanoke Alabama I'm over here on the other side of downtown from where I just was uh this is really a honestly A Tale of Two Towns because there are some beautiful homes here and then there are some uh you know they need a little work the architecture's there that's for sure potential is amazing it'd be incredible to see some of these houses um Reef renovated it'd be amazing okay so uh that's the end of this video we are heading to Georgia next the next several videos will be from there so uh be looking for those

Channel: Lord Spoda

Views: 2,468,456

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Id: 3yJMV4L7Uho

Length: 35min 55sec (2155 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 14 2023