Danielle Kurtzleben at Vox
writes:
The share of poor people living in distressed neighborhoods (those with 40 percent poverty or more) grew by nearly 78 percent during the 2000s, writes Brookings fellow Elizabeth Kneebone. And that growth came overwhelmingly in the suburbs. The share of the poor population in distressed neighborhoods in the suburbs grew by nearly 140 percent, compared to 50 percent in urban areas. [...]
The South has seen more of this growing suburban concentration than other places, the report finds. Southern cities like Atlanta and Winston-Salem have had some of the biggest increases in concentrated poverty during the 2000s. As the Census Bureau found earlier this year, the southeastern US as a whole has seen a dramatic uptick in concentrated poverty. [...]
It's true that concentrated poverty still remains a much bigger problem in cities than suburbs — 23 percent of poor urban residents live in distressed neighborhoods, compared to 6.3 percent of suburb-dwellers. But the fact that suburban concentration is growing suggests future problems.
An added problem for the poor in the suburbs is that local governments there were designed for middle-class and upper middle-class needs and desires. The wrecking of much of the middle class living in suburban areas has yet to produce programs focused on the poor.