Today's News, Tomorrow's Lesson - January 14, 2014

PBS NewsHour Extra

“Hidden” poverty in suburban areas is making it difficult for the
government to successfully continue President Lyndon Johnson’s War on
Poverty, an academic has claimed.

While overall poverty rates have declined since President Johnson’s
declaration in 1964, the number of poor living in suburban communities
has grown. In some cases, there are more poor families in the suburbs
than in major cities.

Elizabeth Kneebone, a fellow at The Brookings Institution who
studies suburban poverty, said that since the year 2000, the number of
poor people living in suburbs has grown by 65 per cent.

“Poverty in these kinds of communities can be hidden. It can be
harder to identify – or even understand – the extent to which the need
has grown, because it may not be easily visible,” she explained.

The shift can mostly be explained by demographics – many Americans
have moved to suburbs in recent years, including low-income residents
and new immigrants. However, Kneebone commented that federal programs
for the poor have not kept pace with the changing times – many were
created in the 1960s and were designed primarily with rural or urban
communities in mind.

“Often suburban communities have not built up the same level of
infrastructure and safety-net supports that cities have been building
up over decades,” she said.

Many of those in poverty are the working poor, whose wages do not
pay enough to support them and their families. They are often caught
between making too little to live comfortably and making too much to be
considered officially “poor” – around $23,500 for a family of four –
thereby disqualifying them for government assistance such as welfare.

Some governments in suburban communities are trying to address this
and other problems affecting the working poor, including expanding
access to child care and public transportation, though experts say it
is critical for suburbs across the nation to recognize and address the
changing face of poverty.