NorthStar News - Marc Morial

"Americans who never imagined themselves becoming poor are now asking for assistance and many are not getting the aid they need." Scott Allard, a University of Michigan professor and co-author of a new Brookings report The Great Recession is rewriting the script on poverty and upward mobility in America. It used to be that a movement from the interior city to the suburbs meant an escape from the grip of welfare, homelessness and hunger.

But recent Census Bureau statistics and a new Brookings analysis reveal that the economic downturn of the preceding 3 days has resulted in a spectacular rise in suburban poverty. While increasing numbers of middle class whites, minorities and immigrants have migrated from the metropolis to the suburbs in late years, an old nemesis has followed. According to Brookings, since 2000, the act of poor people in the suburbs rose by 37.4 percent to 13.7 million. And between 2007 and 2008, the poverty rate increased in 57 of the 100 largest metro areas. The suburban poverty growth rate is more than double that of cities and significantly exceeds the internal order of 26.5 percent. Brookings reports: "Although poverty rates remain higher in central cities than in suburbs (18.2 percent versus 9.5 percent), poverty rates have increased at a faster pace in suburban areas." The new aspect of poverty includes many who fled poor, inner city neighborhoods for the hope of affordable housing and better jobs in the suburbs. But America`s suburbs have been especially decimated by the foreclosure crisis and great recession job losses. Many new suburbanites find themselves on all-too-familiar ground - out of study and worried they won`t be capable to put food on the board or a ceiling over their family`s heads. Some are showing up at homeless shelters. And all of them are not unemployed. According to Brookings, 45 percent of suburban social service providers report an addition in the amount of clients coming from households where one or more adults is working but still don`t make enough to produce ends meet. Three-quarters report an increment in the figure of families requesting safety-net services for the start time. The unexpected invasion of poverty into the suburbs has revealed a vast hole in the social safety net. Most research on poverty and the resultant policy responses have focussed on inner cities where the motive has always been greatest. Suburban safety net providers, including government, philanthropic and non-profit groups, now find themselves woefully under-funded, over-stretched and without the program capabilities to cope with the growing list of suburban residents seeking job training, housing and food assistance. Almost half of suburban non- profits in the Brookings survey reported a loss in funding last year; and one in five suburban non-profits has reduced services since the part of the recession. In September we learned that 44 million Americans - one in seven - are now living in poverty, the largest number since the Census Bureau began tracking poverty 51 years ago. These new findings make it make that the poverty epidemic is spreading beyond our inner cities. When you go into the voting booth on November 2nd, think about who is most attached to providing desperately needed job creation, job training, transportation and safety net services to help both hard pressed urban and suburban families. Marc Morial is the chair and CEO of the National Urban League.