Suburban poverty skyrocketing

No matter what you think of NBC’s “Dateline,” they have put together a solid story on the big jump in suburban poverty since the financial crash of 2008.

Reporter Izhar Harpaz focused on the Boulder, Colo., area for his report. In particular he took at the upscale suburbs of Superior, which was listed by Money Magazine as one of the “Top 20 best places to live in America” in 2011. Neighboring Louisville, another key subject in the Dateline report, was ranked number one on the magazine’s list.

Here’s a portion of the story:

“Boulder County's Department of Housing and Human Services provided the number of Louisville and Superior residents that relied on public safety nets to make ends meet.  And while these affluent communities still boast some of the lowest poverty levels in Colorado, the statistics were nonetheless startling: since 2008 the combined number of families on Medicaid more than doubled, as did the number of people utilizing food assistance.  Lafayette, another well-to-do suburb in East Boulder County, experienced similar increases. 

“And it isn’t just happening in Boulder County.  A 2011 study by the Brookings Institute revealed that for the first time in United States history there were more poor people living in the suburbs than in cities. The research, based on the most recent United States Census data, showed that a record 15.4 million suburban residents lived below the poverty line last year, up 11.5% from the year before, and  that ‘by 2010, suburbs were home to one-third of the nation’s poor population—outranking cities (27.5 percent), small metro areas (20.5 percent), and non-metropolitan communities (18.7 percent).’  

“The Brookings Institute study examined the percentage change of suburban poor populations between 2000 and 2010 in the 95 largest metro areas in the US.  It found that in 16 of them the suburban poor population more than doubled during that time. The Denver metro area which includes some Boulder suburbs saw an increase of 96.4%. And while many of the suburban poor are newly arrived immigrants or transplants from the inner cities, a significant number are formerly middle class families who have fallen victim to the most recent recession.”    

You can read more here.