For the first time, poverty shifts to the U.S. suburbs.

This is an interesting article in Newsweek. I’ve always had an interest in suburban poverty. I predicted this trend a while ago. As a social worker, it is important to understand some of the differences between suburban poverty and urban poverty. I’m not saying one is better than the other, but families and individuals who are poor among the plenty have some interesting challenges. Poverty has always been an “urban” issue so there are far more social services available to the urban poor. There are food shelves, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, subsidized or low-come housing, and other visibly poor people. In the suburbs, there is usually a food shelf that will serve a large geographic area, but that is usually it. There is no place for the homeless. There are very little subsidized or affordable housing options. Transportation is also an issue. has a notoriously horrible public transportation system. If you don’t have a car in the suburbs you are basically stuck. Most social service agencies offer fuel vouchers for low-income clients, but you have to be able to get to the agency to get the voucher. Plus, you actually need to have a car. It will be interesting to see how the suburbs reacts and changes to accommodate low-income individuals and families.

The article describes some of the reasons for the rise in poverty in the suburbs, mainly citing the loss of manufacturing jobs. This creates another problem when it comes to job availability and training. There are very few low-tech jobs available in general, so people need to get back to school for retraining. However, the changes to the government assistance programs have actually created road blocks in the system. People were once allowed to get government assistance while returning to school to obtain new job skills. Currently, people are allowed to use some of their required “work hours” to obtain a 2 year degree, but at four year degree is no longer an option. As a wise professor once told me, “a college degree is your ticket into middle class,” so as a result of “welfare reform” we have created a policy that keeps people in poverty rather than trying to get them out. So, as a means to make amends Congress passed a minimum wage hike. I have to be a naysayer, but I’m not sure how much it will help. It’s still about $4 an hour short of a reasonable, livable wage. I think we need to start identifying the systemic issues which are keeping many in poverty.