The Brookings Institution released a new report this week finding that poverty rose fastest in 2008 in suburbs, particularly in suburban and urban areas in the midwest. It also found that more Americans are now low-income, hovering just above the poverty line.
Over the course of this decade, two economic downturns translated into a significant rise in poverty, nationally and in many of the country's metropolitan and non-metropolitan communities. Suburbs saw by far the greatest growth in their poor population and by 2008 had become home to the largest share of the nation's poor. These trends are likely to continue in the wake of the latest downturn, given its toll on traditionally more suburbanized industries and the faster pace of growth in suburban unemployment. This ongoing shift in the geography of American poverty increasingly requires regional scale collaboration by policymakers and social service providers in order to effectively address the needs of a poor population that is increasingly suburban.
That might not be particularly shocking, but you can read the entire report here.
-- Monica Potts
