BROWNTOWN RANKED NO. 12 MOST MISERABLE U.S. CITY

(Plasma sellers from Mexico cross 13th Street to line up at the CSL plasma center as the homeless huddle in the doorway of the boarded up Casa del Nylon which the city purchased for an inflated $2.3 million in 2011. A decade later, it has become a magnet for vagrants and the homeless. Downtown Brownsville has become a preferred destination for desperate people from the other side of the Rio Grande and a growing homeless population from all over.)

By James Pasley and Angela Wang 

Insighter

These cities have things in common – few opportunities, devastation from natural disasters, high crime and addiction rates, and often many abandoned houses.

Not the worst, just the most miserable.

We've identified the 50 most miserable cities in the US, using census data from 1,000 cities, taking into consideration population change (because if people are leaving it's usually for a good reason), the percentage of people working, median household incomes, the percentage of people without healthcare, median commute times, and the number of people living in poverty.

The most miserable city in the US is Gary, Indiana.
The state with the most miserable cities is California, with 10. New Jersey is close behind, with nine, and Florida comes in third, with six. Below we list the most miserable cities in Texas.

Port Arthur: 2
Port Arthur, a city surrounded by oil refineries, has 55,000 residents. Fifty-three percent are working, and 30% are living in poverty.

The city was hit by hurricanes in 2005, 2008, and 2017. Harvey, the latest, caused $1.3 billion in damage. Officials fear that if people keep leaving, Port Arthur will fall below 50,000 people and make it ineligible for federal grants.

Brownsville: 12

Brownsville has 183,000 residents, 56% of people are working, and more than 31% of people are living in poverty. More than 35% don't have health insurance.

The city is on the Mexican border and is often a crossing for immigrants who entered the country illegally, making it one of the most patrolled places in the country. According to locals, three kinds of helicopters fly overhead. Concern around immigration has also made it difficult for some to sell their properties.

Huntsville: 20
Huntsville has 41,500 residents; 39% of its people are working, and almost 35% live in poverty. The low employment, however, is in part because those living in prisons are counted in the city's population.

The Department of Criminal Justice is the city's biggest employer, providing nearly 7,000 jobs. Since 1999, Texas executions have been done exclusively out of Huntsville.

Harlingen: 39
Harlingen has 65,000 residents; 56% are working, and 30% live in poverty. It is a hot city, with little rainfall. though recently it has been dealing with flooding. It's also one of three cities where 2,000 immigrants were released in 2019, putting pressure on the city to help them.

Pasadena, Texas: 48
Pasadena has 153,000 people, 65% of whom are working, and one-fifth live in poverty. While the median income is $50,207, nearly 29% of people don't have health insurance.

Mostly working-class, the city is based near petrochemical plants and is known for its race issues. It used to be home to the Texas headquarters of the Ku Klux Klan. Now, it's divided. In the north it's primarily made up of Latino people and to the south it's mostly white people.

https://www.businessinsider.com/most-miserable-cities-in-the-united-states-based-on-data-2019-9#1-gary-indiana-50