Brookings Institution: suburbs contain biggest increase in US poor

The Brookings Institution has issued a new report that measures the numbers of poor in the United States. It finds that the biggest increases were concentrated on suburban areas of the nation's metropolitan communities. Suburban poverty has increased 25 percent since 2000, rising at a rate five times faster than the central cities.

The Brookings report also found that the biggest increases in poverty rates were found in Midwestern cities, while Northeastern poverty rates declined. 30 percent of Americans are now below 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

To download the full report from the Brookings website click here, there is also a city by city breakdown of the stats available here. US newspapers are localizing the study for today's issues, what follows are snippets of three such stories that caught our eye.

From The Birmingham News writer Jeff Hansen reveals a surprising trend for Birmingham, Alabama.

The Brookings Institution today reports that the poverty rates in the city of Birmingham and in the rest of the seven-county metro area declined from 2000 to 2008, by 2.4 and 0.6 percentage points, respectively.

That defied the overall trend seen in the nation's 95 largest metro areas, where the number of American poor increased by 5.2 million, with almost half of that growth occurring in what Brookings calls "the suburbs."

Birmingham's outlier status in an anomaly. The metro region was late in joining the Great Recession: Birmingham metro unemployment averaged 4.5 percent in 2008, but then 9.1 percent through the first 11 months of 2009.

Brookings expects the Birmingham-Hoover metro poverty rate will to climb by 2.4 percentage points from 2008 to 2009, based on that surge of unemployment already seen for 2009. And Brookings expects poverty rates in the other 94 metro areas will also rise.

The Brookings Institution said the trend of more poor people living in suburbs means that "the balance of metropolitan poverty has passed a tipping point."

James Rosen of McClatchy Newspapers gives us the statistics for the Carolinas.

More than one of every four Columbia residents is now living in poverty.

Columbia has been hit harder than other cities in the Carolinas, but Charleston, Charlotte and Raleigh are also home to a growing number of poor people.
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More than 15.8 percent of Charlotte's residents are poor. That's only a slightly larger share than the 14.1 percent poverty rate in Charlotte metro area suburbs in Mecklenburg, Gaston, Union and York, S.C., counties.

York County, though, has been hit worse, with 16.3 percent of its residents living in poverty.

Things are bleaker still along the S.C.-Georgia border: Aiken County, part of the Augusta, Ga., metropolitan area, has a 19.2 percent poverty rate.

The suburban-city disparity is sharper in Columbia: The city proper has a poverty rate of 27.7 percent, compared with a 13.6 percent in its suburbs in Richland, Lexington, Kershaw and other nearby counties.

The Indianapolis Star gives us the results for that area.

The number of people living in poverty in Indianapolis increased in the years 2000 through 2008, but the city's poverty rate remains below that of the 95 largest U.S. cities, according to a new report from a Washington think tank.
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In the Indianapolis suburbs, defined as 10 surrounding and nearby counties, the number of people living in poverty increased to 65,684 in 2008, up by 29,741 since 2000, the report said. The poverty rate in the Indianapolis suburbs increased from 5 percent in 2000 to 7.3 percent in 2008.

Suburban Poverty Growing In Frisco

from CBS 11 Dallas

The private, gated community of 'Starwood' is the symbol of affluence in Frisco.

City resident Elizabeth Brzeski was the victim of a house fire. A business failure and a divorce has forced her fast and painful tumble into poverty. She now lives in a government subsidized apartment. Her 5,000 square foot house has been replaced by a three bedroom apartment. "There's a lot of loneliness, even though I have four kids," she said. "I do get lonely."

Every week, Brzeski and her four children select 60 pounds of food from the pantry at Frisco Family Services.

Her two boys and two girls are learning some of life's toughest lessons. "I tell them not to waste food," Brzeski said. "We're very stringent about just about everything, how much shampoo we use, just because, and it's hard for them."

According to the Brookings Institution, the number of people living in poverty nationwide is higher in the suburbs than in big cities. Suburban poverty is also growing here in North Texas.

The average household income in Frisco is about $80,000 a year, 200 percent higher than the state average. For a growing number of families, however, that number does not reflect their reality.

Jill Cumnock of Frisco Family Services said, "I think everybody has this myth that everyone in Frisco is affluent, and that's just not the case." Four years ago, Frisco Family Services helped 475 families. Now, nearly three times as many are being served, many of which are the "new poor," residents who had a high-tech or professional career with a high salary, and now have very little.

Brzeski said that asking for help, at times, is awkward and humiliating. "But now," she said, "when I look back, I can say God will always provide. And I have to keep reminding myself of that, because every day is challenging."

'Suburban poverty’ hits region

from The News Record

By Richard M. Barron
Staff Writer

The area’s poverty statistics are stark and sobering.

* More than 62,000 people in Guilford, Rockingham and Randolph counties — but not including Greensboro — are classified as poor.

* The number of people on food stamps in High Point is at an all-time high and more than double what it was in the late 1990s.

* Rockingham County has lost 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since 2000.

Those are some of the reasons a new report ranks the three-county area among the 10 regions with the most suburban poverty in the nation. The study by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, shows that the 2005 poverty rate in Guilford, Rockingham and Randolph counties outside the city of Greensboro is 14.4 percent, a notch below New Orleans and Modesto, Calif.

Why? The spike in what the Brookings study calls "suburban poverty" is the worst fallout yet from the region’s battle with continual textile layoffs and a slow economic recovery.

It underscores the fact that manufacturing built the region’s small communities and that its loss is now squeezing the people who want to stay and build new lives.

Consequently, social service organizations throughout the region report strong increases in demand for their financial assistance programs.

"This county at one time was a pretty wealthy county when American Tobacco was going full speed ... this was a 'have’ county," said Larry Johnson, the director of Rockingham County’s Department of Social Services. "We’ve got more and more of the character or the symptoms of a 'have not’ county, and I think that’s a hard thing to come to grips with."

The report, using census data and released Wednesday, shows that poverty has grown in suburban regions across the nation. Because the Greensboro area includes three counties and considers only Greensboro to be a "center city," its poverty rate encompasses a region that includes the relatively large city of High Point.

The study’s author says that this region’s rising suburban poverty rate mirrors that of Midwestern cities most closely associated with car and steel manufacturing.

Manufacturing once made the Greensboro region relatively "recession-proof." But once other countries proved they could produce cloth, clothes and chairs more cheaply, local jobs bled from the region’s economy.

"In good times it’s a great thing to have a cluster like that that generates growth and income," said Alan Berube of Brookings. "But given the condition of the economy today and globalization and offshoring, it’s having a concentration and reliance on the textile industry that’s driving these poverty increases."

In the broader Piedmont Triad, manufacturing jobs have dropped by 23 percent since 2001.

Rockingham County, with about 90,000 people, has lost more than 4,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000. It’s a significant blow to the area’s tradition, culture and economy because generations of residents could land these jobs and support families with minimal training or education.

In the past five years, the population has remained steady, but the economy has not grown to replace lost jobs. The number of jobs in the county has decreased from 33,000 in 2000 to about 30,000 last year.
That gives workers few places to turn.

"It’s just been a steady stream of losing manufacturing jobs and then being replaced mostly by service jobs," Johnson said. And service jobs in retail or food service typically pay far lower wages than manufacturing jobs. Manufacturing wages in Rockingham average $37,000 a year, while retail jobs pay around $21,000 a year.

"It’s key to remind people today that poverty increasingly isn’t about people who won’t get off their butt and go to work," Berube said. "It’s about people who were working and were the victim of a layoff and people who are taking the low- wage jobs that our economy seems to be very good at creating. It’s important to remember there’s a high- end service sector and there’s a low- end service sector."

The result is a surge in the need for assistance, Johnson said.

"We’ve certainly seen growth here. Right now we’re looking at a 20 to 25 percent increase in all of our public assistance programs in the past two years," he said. "I think that’s pretty significant. "

But local residents are not leaving the county, often because they have strong roots in the community through property, family or both.

"We’ve seen some population leave, but a lot of folks are trying to get public assistance," Johnson said. And for those who don’t have small children, limited food-stamp assistance may be all they can get, he said.
It’s the same in Guilford County outside of Greensboro.

In High Point, about 7,000 people are on food stamps, said John Shore, the director of Guilford County’s Department of Social Services.

Steve Key of Open Door Ministries in High Point isn’t surprised. He sees more need for the group’s assistance across the board.

"I’ve been doing this since 1989," he said. "It just seems like there’s more and more need that’s overflowing what some of the primary agencies can take care of."

People are working for lower wages that don’t support them as the cost s of natural gas, food and transportation rise ever higher, he said.

The young and the old are affected, he said. And the sick seem less able to care for themselves and they become poor. At one time, he said, families were more able to help people with serious illnesses. Now, those people are turning up at his agency, he said.

"You’ve got people who are in low-income categories and the rest of their family is, too, and they don’t have the ability to absorb them, as well," he said.

Berube says economic development programs are already on the Piedmont Triad’s agenda: Improved training, encouraging entrepreneurs and recruiting modern growth industries will ultimately push the work force to recovery.

And Rockingham County’s Johnson is convinced the workers here have what it takes to dig in and make it.

"There’s a real high work ethic in this county," he said. "People want to work. They would prefer working, and I think that’s a plus that will hopefully pull us through this."

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.

U.S. poverty is moving to suburbs, study finds

from The Seattle Times

By Stephen Ohlemacher

WASHINGTON — As Americans flee the cities for the suburbs, many are failing to leave poverty behind.

The suburban poor outnumbered inner-city counterparts for the first time last year, with more than 12 million suburban residents living in poverty, according to a study of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas released today.

"Economies are regional now," said Alan Berube, who co-wrote the report for the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "Where you see increases in city poverty, in almost every metropolitan area, you also see increases in suburban poverty."

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

"Looking back at the 1970s, you would have seen cities suffering and suburbs staying the same," said Berube, research director at the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program. "But the story is different today."

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

Berube said several factors are contributing to an increase in suburban poverty:

• 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.

• The poverty rate in large cities (18.8 percent) is higher than it is in the suburbs (9.4 percent). But the overall number of people living in poverty is higher in the suburbs, in part because of population growth.

• U.S. suburbs are becoming more diverse, racially and economically. "There's poverty really everywhere in metropolitan areas because there are low-wage jobs everywhere," Berube said.

• Recent immigrants are increasingly bypassing cities and moving directly to suburbs, especially in the South and West. Those immigrants, on average, have lower incomes than people born in the United States.

Berube and research analyst Elizabeth Kneebone studied poverty figures for the 100 largest metropolitan areas, measuring changes from 1999 to 2005, the most recent data available.

In 1999, the number of poor people living in cities and suburbs was roughly even, at about 10.3 million each, according to the report. Last year, the suburban poor outnumbered their urban counterparts by about 1.2 million.

Cleveland was the city with the highest poverty rate last year, at 32.4 percent. McAllen, Texas, was the suburb with the highest poverty rate, at 43.9 percent.