Poverty: Rockin’ the Suburbs

Twelve million American suburbanites are living in poverty, outnumbering the urban poor for the first time ever, as the poverty rate levels off at 12.6% “after increasing every year since the decade began.”

It shoud be noted that the poverty rate in cities is still higher—18.8% vs. 9.4% in the burbs—but the number of people in poverty is higher in suburbia and quickly growing for several reasons, including suburban growth outpacing urban growth and recent immigrants who “on average, have lower incomes than people born in the United States” now “increasingly bypassing cities and moving directly to the suburbs.” And then there’s the issue of the quality and variety (or lack thereof) of suburban jobs; to be sure, there are low-wage jobs in cities, too, though cities tend to provide a more comprehensive spectrum of opportunities. There are more entry-level white collar jobs (mail clerk, receptionist) with good healthcare benefits in any city than there are in the suburbs, so someone clever but not degreed may do better in the city than in the burbs, where Wal-Mart might offer the best job options going.

At one time, not so long ago, people in the service industry—waiting tables, working retail—may have had a better standard of living in the suburbs, but now, with suburban living predicated on having a car, and regularly filling that car with gas, more and more of a suburban paycheck goes toward just getting to and from work. Public trans in the city remains pretty damn cheap—and in a northern city like Chicago, where many apartments have radiator heat included in the rent, not having to pay ghastly winter heating bills in suburban apartments with forced air is another bonus of city living. People are leaving the city to escape poverty, but may find themselves more exposed in the suburbs than they imagined.

As to the overall number, 12.6% is a damn high poverty rate already, but consider that the poverty level is federally defined as $15,577 for a family of three, and recall that a full-time minimum wage worker cannot afford a one-bedroom apartment anywhere in the country at average market rates right now, meaning that more than $10,712 must be earned just to rent a one-bedroom apartment. Is it very likely that a family of three living on even $16k (or $17k, or $18k) is not struggling financially, is not what most of us would call poverty-stricken, is not suffering the fates of poverty—juggling paying bills and buying food, avoiding all but the most dire emergency healthcare, no savings, no personal safety net, treading water mightily? We are fooling ourselves if we think that there aren’t many, many more people in this country who are “living in poverty” than our government is willing to recognize.