Growing Suburban Poverty Presents Challenges for Nonprofits, Say Scholars

The rise of poverty in the nation’s suburbs has been largely overlooked by government and philanthropy, two scholars at the Brookings Institution, Elizabeth Kneebone and Alan Berube, contend in their new book, Confronting Suburban Poverty in America. Ms. Kneebone discussed their research with The Chronicle:

How deep is the problem of suburban poverty?

Since the ’80s, the pace of growth of the poor population in the suburbs has outstripped that in the cities. In each decade, that picked up pace. If you look between 2000 and 2011, the poor population in the suburbs grew by 64 percent—that’s more than twice the pace of growth in major cities. About a third of the poor population in the U.S. lives in the suburbs.

What caused this growth?

The shift that we saw in suburban poverty happened even before the recession [of 2008]. The recession exacerbated it.

The jobs we’re seeing grow at the fastest pace are often lower-paying occupations that even if you’re working full-time, may not be enough to get you above the poverty line.

We’ve seen jobs suburbanize over the last decade, and some of the most suburbanized jobs are in lower-paying sectors, like retail and construction.

Housing helps shape where families are living. About three quarters of foreclosures that happened after the collapse of the housing market occurred in suburban communities.

Why has suburban poverty been ignored?

It can be difficult to take this fragmented system of [government and nonprofit] programs and policies that was built with urban areas in mind and make it work effectively in suburban communities. These suburbs haven’t built up the same sort of infrastructure and resources that exist in urban areas that have been struggling with these challenges for longer.

If there’s no capacity to absorb funding, it’s difficult as a grant maker to be able to put resources into that community. The landscape of poverty has changed, but our perceptions and our responses to how we address poverty haven’t.

You point to Neighborhood Centers, a charity in Houston, as a successful effort to serve the suburban poor. What works?

The safety net in these communities, the nonprofit presence, can be thin and patchy.

Neighborhood Centers can be responsive to the changing needs of the community because it’s a $275-million organization. It’s working in over 70 sites across the city and suburbs, and it’s able to blend 35 different federal programs with state, local, and private investment to create a continuum of services.

At the same time, it invests in understanding the differences across communities and neighborhoods in what’s needed. Through surveys, through taking the time to learn what residents are looking for and would benefit most from, they’re able to adapt their services at different sites. It doesn’t try to do everything itself; it partners with many organizations in the region.

Can you describe other promising projects you found in your research?

Chicago is a region with very fragmented suburbs—there are hundreds of municipalities. They were among those that were hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis.

The support of the Chicago Community Trust, and later the Grand Victoria Foundation and the Field Foundation, funded a coordinator in each of these suburban clusters so they had the capacity to be able to apply for federal funding and navigate a system that doesn’t adapt very well to the suburban context.

[They’re now] thinking beyond neighborhood stabilization to development related to transportation needs and the economy.

The Road Map Project is seven school districts—Seattle’s South Side and six suburban districts—that got together to discuss the educational- achievement gaps in their communities. Fifty-eight percent of the students are low-income; they come from families that speak 167 different languages.

They’re pursuing a model that embraces a cradle-to-college continuum of services. It brings together school districts with other partners in the nonprofit sector. They have work groups that meet to address difficulties they see arising, to keep things on track.