New Report: The Social Service Challenges of Rising Suburban Poverty

Posted by on October 17, 2010

Report shows rapid increase in suburban poverty

Research exploring issues of poverty typically has focused on central-city neighborhoods, where poverty and joblessness have been most concentrated. As a result, most antipoverty policies focus primarily on ameliorating concentrated poverty in inner-city (and, in some cases, rural) areas. Suburbs, by contrast, are seen as destinations of opportunity for quality schools, safe neighborhoods, or good jobs.

Several recent trends have begun to upset this familiar urban-suburban narrative about poverty and opportunity in metropolitan America, according to a report issued by The Brookings Institution.

In 1999, large U.S. cities and their suburbs had roughly equal numbers of poor residents, but by 2008 the number of suburban poor exceeded the poor in central cities by 1.5 million. Although poverty rates remain higher in central cities than in suburbs (18.2 percent versus 9.5 percent in 2008), poverty rates have increased at a quicker pace in suburban areas.

The report examined data from the Census Bureau and the Internal Revenue Service, along with in-depth interviews and a new survey of social services providers in suburban communities surrounding Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. to assess the challenges that rising suburban poverty poses for local safety nets and community-based organizations.

The report found that in the wake of the recession, demand is up significantly for the typical suburban provider, and almost three-quarters (73 percent) of suburban nonprofits are seeing more clients with no previous connection to safety net programs. Needs have changed as well, with nearly 80 percent of suburban nonprofits surveyed seeing families with food needs more often than one year prior, and nearly 60 percent reporting more frequent requests for help with mortgage or rent payments.

Almost half of suburban nonprofits surveyed (47 percent) reported a loss in a key revenue source last year, with more funding cuts anticipated in the year to come. Due in large part to funding cuts, more than one in five suburban nonprofits has reduced services available since the start of the recession and one in seven has actively cut caseloads. Nearly 30 percent of nonprofits have laid off full-time and part-time staff as a result of lost program grants or to reduce operating costs.

The full report, entitled Strained Suburbs: The Social Service Challenges of Rising Suburban Poverty, can be downloaded here.

http://hosted.uwsepa.org/newsletter/brookings1010.pdf

A second Brookings publication, The Great Recession and Poverty in Metropolitan America, says that, since 2007, suburban residents accounted for more than 37 percent of the increase in the number of poor people living in the country’s 100 largest metropolitan areas.

http://www.brookings.edu/%7E/media/Files/rc/reports/2010/1007_suburban_poverty_allard_roth/1007_suburban_poverty_acs_kneebone.pdf