Economic Mobility

Economic Mobility describes how economic status changes over time. Most often, the ways in which economic status is judged considers income and how it changes over a lifetime. When income improves, a person’s status is getting better. Conversely, when income stays flat or goes down over a lifetime, that person’s status is getting worse.

Economic mobility describes the opportunity available to one individual. However, economic mobility is often more useful when used to assess the overall opportunity in a neighborhood, city, or state. For example, due to historic policy decisions, some neighborhoods provide a higher rate of upward mobility. Considering this, some families may use measures of economic mobility to decide where to live. Alternatively, elected officials may decide on different ways to improve financial status in a neighborhood, city, or state.

ELEVATE Morgan Hill

The City recently put together "ELEVATE Morgan Hill," an Economic Mobility report below that identifies needs in the community and provides ideas on how to help improve economic prosperity for all Morgan Hill residents. The strategies and actions in the report focus on connecting Spanish-speaking and lower-income community members to jobs and housing resources while enhancing their sense of belonging.

Morgan Hill’s interest in learning about best practices for implementing economic mobility strategies was based on the 2023 Housing Element, which required the City to develop a plan to connect Spanish-speaking and lower-income community members to jobs and housing resources while also increasing their sense of belonging to the greater community.

In 2023, the City of Morgan Hill applied to participate in the International City and County Management Association’s (ICMA) Economic Mobility and Opportunity (EMO) Cohort. ICMA selected 10 cities and counties located throughout the nation to receive training, technical assistance, and funding to inform policies and effect conditions that promote overall well-being and upward mobility through strategies, programs, policies, and practices.

ICMA’s Economic Mobility and Opportunity Initiative is funded by the Gates Foundation, which seeks to improve the security, health, and welfare of vulnerable residents across the country. The City’s participation in the program and learning from the other cohort cities have resulted in the development and launch of ELEVATE Morgan Hill, which reimagines how local government can work beyond its traditional role to increase economic opportunity and mobility.

The overall goal of ELEVATE Morgan Hill is to identify and deploy a continuum of services that connect residents to job opportunities and housing resources while enhancing their sense of belonging in Morgan Hill. ELEVATE Morgan Hill identifies significant challenges for Morgan Hill residents and proposes strategies and actions to improve the quality of life for all. However, to create significant and beneficial change, especially for Spanish-speaking and lower-income residents where language barriers hinder prosperity and belonging, a focused approach to providing information, services, resources, and education is critical.