The new suburban poverty

New Suburban Poverty

Suburban poverty: The new, hidden underclass

Suburban poverty -- the type of poverty that exists side-by-side manicured lawns, near sprawling houses with basketball nets in the driveway -- is a relatively new phenomenon, and rapidly growing, according to The Nation's reporter Eyal Press. This is confirmed with hard data from a Brookings Institute survey, which reports that demand for social services in the suburbs was up after the Great Recession, "significantly…almost three-quarters (73%) of suburban nonprofits are seeing more clients with no previous connection to safety net programs. Needs have changed as well, with nearly 80% of suburban nonprofits surveyed seeing families with food needs more often than one year prior, and nearly 60% reporting more frequent requests for help with mortgage or rent payments" (Allard & Roth 2010).

Eyal Press' article suggests that the factors that contribute to suburban poverty are systemic rather than simply related to the recent economic crisis. A lack of social support systems, transportation, and affordable housing, as well as suburban isolation can make suburban poverty more difficult to endure, even though it has not been studied as much as the culture of urban poverty. Still, during slightly more affluent times, many members of the suburban underclass could find work in the suburbs as domestic help and in service-based occupations (albeit often at minimum wage). Now that the economy is contracting, many of these individuals have been let go, and are forced to resort to sharing cars they can ill-afford, to take advantage of the bounty of local food banks. "Over the last decade many low-income families leaving deteriorating high-poverty neighborhoods in central cities in search of better job opportunities, neighborhoods, and schools found themselves settled in new pockets of poverty in the suburbs," and the small prosperity these individuals gained has been eradicated (Cawthorne 2010). Those who did try to buy houses became victims of the subprime crisis and took on 'more house' than they could reasonably afford.

In 2007, despite his dim view of social services available, Press did find some hope in the re-defining of the economic landscape of the suburbs. "The suburbs were created, after all, precisely to erect spatial barriers between rich and poor. This is surely part of the reason new ones keep springing up in ever more remote areas, away from the crime and squalor (read: poor brown and black folk) in urban locales. But it is also a fact that less affluent people are slowly but surely finding their way into suburbs anyway" and Press hopes that this will result in new voting patterns more favorable to the interests of the poor (Press 2007). Press' optimism seems undercut by the recent, overwhelming victory for Tea Party and Republican candidates, overwhelmingly supported by white, suburban voters. A presence within the suburbs does not always translate into electoral victory, if members of the so-called underclass do not vote. One of the dangers of the suburbs may be its spread-out nature, and there is a lack of cohesion and ability to mobilize, versus more urban environments.