S T R E E T R O O T S IL L U S T R A T IO N
Across the nation, suburbs now surpass cities and rural areas in the num ber o f people living in poverty
BY JOANNE ZUHL
S T A F F W R IT E R
f you want to know what homelessness looks
like in the 21st century, you have to look
beyond the familiar hoods and urban alleys.
You have to head out to the 'burbs.
Nationwide, there’s been a tipping point: The
suburbs are now home to more people
experiencing poverty than our nation’s cities,
with the population increasing at twice the rate.
According to a new study by the Brookings
Institute, the poor population in our suburbs
grew 64 percent between 2000 and 2011,
compared to 29 percent in our cities. By 2011,
16.4 million residents in suburbia lived below
the poverty line, more than 3 million than the
number in living in U .S . cities, according to the
study.
For decades now, poverty in Portland and
Vancouver’s suburbs have outpaced the city
proper. Our suburbs are home to 189,515 people
living below the poverty line, more than twice the
entire population of Beaverton and more than
Gresham, Oregon City and Forest Grove
combined.
Across the country, poverty grew to record
levels in the 2000s (“It’s the economy, stupid.”)
But the numbers of poor amassing in our suburbs
was on the rise even before the Great Recession
and the sluggish, jobless recovery. Once an icon
of America’s upwardly mobile, suburbia is
grinding against the the weight of economic
stagnation, and the dynamics of urban versus
suburban poverty is posing a challenge to how we
identify who is poor, why they are in need and
subsequently what society can do to reverse this
trend.
I
The Brookings Institute’s
Elizabeth Kneebone, who
along with Alan Berube
co-authored the new book
“Confronting Suburban
Poverty in America,” says
their book is as much about
how we got here as it is
understanding what needs
to be done to get us out.
For decades, programs
and agendas have focused
on inner city poverty, but
that agenda won’t work as
well with suburban
populations where
economic opportunities are limited. Kneebone
says we have to approach the solution not as a
collection of government agendas, but with a
more metropolitan approach.
Jo a n n e Zuhl: What did you learn about our
region?
E lizabeth K neebone: Both the urban area
and the suburbs saw a rapid pace of growth in the
poor population over the decade. In the city of
Portland and Vancouver, the poor population grew
by 71 percent, well above the national average.
Yet in the suburbs, the poor population almost
doubled in that time period, increasing by 99
percent.
J.Z.: Is that astounding - do you gasp at those
numbers like I just did?
E.K.: T h a t’s w h a t is so strik in g a b o u t th e
2000s — it’s not just the shift we’re seeing and
where the poor population is growing, but the
magnitude and the pace at which the poor
population has grown in recent years. That’s part
of the challenge for people and places dealing
with this issue. In many cases this has happened
so quickly, so rapidly, and particularly thinking
about suburbs that don’t necessarily have the
same history of building up infrastructure and
safety net supports that can help low-income
families, that a lot of communities are playing
catch-up. Or maybe don’t even appreciate the
extent to which their neighbors are struggling
because it happened so quickly in so many places
in recent years.
J.Z.: What's causing this?
E.K.: Big picture, there are two main reasons
we see growth of poverty in the suburbs. It’s
when poor residents or families are moving into
suburban communities, or as longer term
residents have slipped down the economic ladder.
In terms of people moving in, suburbs have grown
faster than cities in the 2000s. And as they grew
they became more diverse, economically and
demographically.
Part of this is due to where affordable housing
is in a region, and that can be shaped by a
number of factors. Zoning and land use make a
difference. But so do things like housing age. As
housing becomes older, it becomes more
affordable.
There is also the role of subsidies. We’ve seen
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The 2013 federal
poverty line for an
individual is an income
of $11,490 or lower.
For a family of four,
it is $23,550.
See SUBURBS, page 4
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