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"It&#039;s not the low-wage blacksmiths and brickmakers in Colonial Williamsburg who are driving up the city&#039;s poverty levels. It&#039;s the College of William &amp; Mary.At least that&#039;s according to a study by the University of Virginia looking at how poverty rates may look worse than they really are in small college towns because of the number of students living off-campus.Williamsburg&#039;s 20.5 percent poverty rate is well above the national average of 14.8 percent. But it dropped to 11.6 percent when U.Va. researchers removed people enrolled in postsecondary education from the census equation.The same drop happens in Radford (40 percent down to 15 percent), Harrisonburg (33 percent to 15 percent) and Charlottesville (28 percent to 15 percent).William &amp; Mary, though, says 74 percent of its student body lives on campus. The census doesn&#039;t count people living in group homes, like dorms, for its poverty data.So what about Hampton Roads with Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University, Hampton University and Regent University?&amp;quot;While the Hampton Roads area has several large colleges, its localities are all large enough to dilute the effect of students on the poverty rate,&amp;quot; said Luke Juday with U.Va.&#039;s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. &amp;quot;More of Hampton Roads&#039; students are enrolled in commuter schools or community colleges and are likely to have jobs elsewhere.&amp;quot;Kimberly Pierceall, 757-550-1903, kimberly.pierceall@pilotonline.com"
<https://www.pilotonline.com/business/article_91ee9b40-e28d-5245-b14f-3e33c47fac94.html>