Des Moines area ranks lowest in suburban poverty

from The Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier

DES MOINES (AP) --- The sprawling suburbs around this capital city have more to brag about than wide open spaces and quiet streets lined with new homes. Suburban Des Moines also has the lowest suburban poverty rate in the nation, according to a new report released Thursday.

Last year, the suburban poverty rate in Des Moines was 3.7 percent, while suburban McAllen, Texas, had the highest rate at 43.9 percent, according to the report by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. It studied the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas, examining changes from 1999 to 2005.

Suburban Des Moines officials pointed to different factors for the low poverty rate in their communities, from high housing costs to an unwavering work ethic.

Dennis Henderson, the city manager in Clive, said low poverty rates in the northwest Des Moines suburb are likely a product of a young community and new housing in the area.

"There's been such a tremendous amount of growth, therefore the communities out here, on the western side ... we're so new that the other (poverty) factors have not caught up with us yet," said Henderson, adding that Clive is only 50 years old.

"I'm older than my city is," he joked.

National suburban poverty rates are increasing, and for a number of reasons, said Alan Berube, who co-wrote the report. That includes that suburbs are adding people much faster than cities, making it inevitable that the number of poor people living in suburbs would eventually surpass those living in cities, and because America's suburbs are becoming more diverse, racially and economically.

The federal government defined the poverty level in 2005 as $15,577 for a family of three.

Nationwide, the report says suburban poor outnumbered their inner-city counterparts for the first time last year, with more than 12 million suburban residents living in poverty.

"Economies are regional now," Berube said. "Where you see increases in city poverty, in almost every metropolitan area, you also see increases in suburban poverty."

Ben Hildebrandt, with the Iowa Bankers Association, said the Des Moines area has been fortunate "to have a consistent, relatively solid, growing economy," and that the cost of living remains low compared to the rest of the nation.

"A rising tide isn't lifting all central Iowa boats, but the rising tide is lifting a majority of our boats," said Hildebrandt, vice president of marketing, public affairs and member services

Nationally, the poverty rate leveled off last year at 12.6 percent after increasing every year since the decade began. It was a period when the country went through a recession and an uneven recovery that is still sputtering in some parts of the Northeast and Midwest.

That doesn't appear to be the case in the Des Moines suburbs.

Bob Layton, city manager of Urbandale, said housing prices continue to rise in the suburb northwest of Des Moines, so it makes it more difficult for low-income Iowans to enter the market there.

"We don't have a lot of turnover on the more affordable housing in Urbandale. Families tend to stay in those longer," he said. "We aren't seeing a lot of "For Sale" signs in those neighborhoods."

A strong Midwestern work ethic may also be credited with the low suburban poverty rate, said Mark Miller, city manager of Norwalk.

Iowans "aren't shying away from doing extra work, so they've been able to maybe start lower and reinvest and keep coming up and improving their life stake," he said.