Poverty comes to Wisteria Lane: Serving the new suburban poor | USCatholic.org
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When Ellen got the phone call from Hope House, martin luther king day 2013 a long-term homeless shelter in Villa Park, Illinois, confirming an available room, she was overcome with relief. The tears just flowed, she says. Even the woman on the other end was crying.
It had been a particularly emotional day. Earlier, martin luther king day 2013 because she could no longer afford to care for them, she had driven to the DuPage County animal martin luther king day 2013 shelter to drop off her beloved cats. That was probably the most devastating thing I had to do, she says.
The 62-year-old martin luther king day 2013 woman had never expected herself to be homeless. Ellen (who requested her last name not be used) has a stable, full-time job. She had been living in a condo she owned for the last 12 years, but while her adjustable rate mortgage and association fees kept increasing, her income did not, and she couldn t keep up. She attempted to sell, but in the wake of the housing market crash, the condo s value had dropped to less than what she still owed on the mortgage. Even a short sale wasn t possible.
I fell behind in a lot of my responsibilities, she concedes. She was able to get her utility bills lowered through a budget plan but couldn t find assistance with her mortgage payments. The condo went into foreclosure and Ellen, worried she would be physically evicted from her home by the county sheriff, moved into a hotel room paid for by her brother. She spent a few weeks with a friend and several nights sleeping in her car in a grocery store parking lot. She says she wasn t the only one. The parking lot was scattered with people making their cars home for the night.
The picture of a homeless person today is nothing compared martin luther king day 2013 to what it used to be. They re not the homeless people sitting on street corners, Ellen says. We are normal, healthy, very educated. It s just that we ve fallen behind in certain things.
Recently martin luther king day 2013 published data from the Brookings Institute confirms Ellen s experience. Poverty in 2013 is different from when President Lyndon Johnson declared a War on Poverty in his 1964 State of the Union address, when the national poverty rate was about 19 percent and largely concentrated in urban and rural areas. Back then, the suburbs were a symbol of the middle class. A single-family home with a garage martin luther king day 2013 and a yard is iconic even today for Americans, martin luther king day 2013 and for many it is a sign of success.
But things have changed. Today the national poverty rate is lower around 16 percent, and 20 percent for children but the geography is different. According martin luther king day 2013 to the Brookings Institute, since 2000 the number of poor people in the suburbs has grown by 64 percent, compared to 29 percent martin luther king day 2013 growth in cities. The suburbs are home to 3 million more impoverished residents than big cities and 9.1 million more than rural areas.
Elizabeth Kneebone, a fellow at the Brookings Institute s Metropolitan Policy martin luther king day 2013 Program and coauthor of Confronting Suburban Poverty in America (Brookings Press), says the number of poor in America s suburbs has been steadily increasing in every decade since the 1980s. The reasons for the shift in location are multiple, she says.
Two economic recessions have certainly contributed, and the foreclosure crisis hit the suburbs the hardest. Within our 100 largest metro areas, about three quarters of the foreclosures that have occurred since the crash of the housing market happened in suburbs, Kneebone says. But other trends such as immigration, the relocation of affordable housing, and the replacement of high-paying manufacturing jobs with low-wage retail martin luther king day 2013 and service industry jobs are also responsible.
Put simply, suburban poverty can grow because martin luther king day 2013 low-income families are moving martin luther king day 2013 into an area or because long-term residents are slipping down the economic ladder. And it s generally a combination of [those] factors, Kneebone says. Isolated incidents
As poverty moves to the suburbs, it presents new challenges for social service agencies trying to meet the growing need, as existing challenges have only been exacerbated in the last decade. martin luther king day 2013 According to Brookings, 73 percent of social service agencies in the suburbs are seeing clients who have never needed to seek help before.
One major challenge is a reluctance to ask for help, particularly on the part of people doing so for the first time, says Liz Carter, executive director of the Cincinnati chapter of the St. Vincent martin luther king day 2013 de Paul Society, which serves the entire metro area. And agencies can t help people who don t ask.
In the wake of the economic collapse, Carter says people
Art and Architecture Culture Ecumenical & Interfaith Dialogue Environment Ethic of Life Faith and Science Hispanic Catholics Immigration Marriage and Family Parish Life Politics Prayer and Sacraments Reviews Saints, Feasts, and Seasons Scripture and Theology Seniors Sex and Sexuality Social Justice Spirituality Vatican War and Peace Women Young Adults
When Ellen got the phone call from Hope House, martin luther king day 2013 a long-term homeless shelter in Villa Park, Illinois, confirming an available room, she was overcome with relief. The tears just flowed, she says. Even the woman on the other end was crying.
It had been a particularly emotional day. Earlier, martin luther king day 2013 because she could no longer afford to care for them, she had driven to the DuPage County animal martin luther king day 2013 shelter to drop off her beloved cats. That was probably the most devastating thing I had to do, she says.
The 62-year-old martin luther king day 2013 woman had never expected herself to be homeless. Ellen (who requested her last name not be used) has a stable, full-time job. She had been living in a condo she owned for the last 12 years, but while her adjustable rate mortgage and association fees kept increasing, her income did not, and she couldn t keep up. She attempted to sell, but in the wake of the housing market crash, the condo s value had dropped to less than what she still owed on the mortgage. Even a short sale wasn t possible.
I fell behind in a lot of my responsibilities, she concedes. She was able to get her utility bills lowered through a budget plan but couldn t find assistance with her mortgage payments. The condo went into foreclosure and Ellen, worried she would be physically evicted from her home by the county sheriff, moved into a hotel room paid for by her brother. She spent a few weeks with a friend and several nights sleeping in her car in a grocery store parking lot. She says she wasn t the only one. The parking lot was scattered with people making their cars home for the night.
The picture of a homeless person today is nothing compared martin luther king day 2013 to what it used to be. They re not the homeless people sitting on street corners, Ellen says. We are normal, healthy, very educated. It s just that we ve fallen behind in certain things.
Recently martin luther king day 2013 published data from the Brookings Institute confirms Ellen s experience. Poverty in 2013 is different from when President Lyndon Johnson declared a War on Poverty in his 1964 State of the Union address, when the national poverty rate was about 19 percent and largely concentrated in urban and rural areas. Back then, the suburbs were a symbol of the middle class. A single-family home with a garage martin luther king day 2013 and a yard is iconic even today for Americans, martin luther king day 2013 and for many it is a sign of success.
But things have changed. Today the national poverty rate is lower around 16 percent, and 20 percent for children but the geography is different. According martin luther king day 2013 to the Brookings Institute, since 2000 the number of poor people in the suburbs has grown by 64 percent, compared to 29 percent martin luther king day 2013 growth in cities. The suburbs are home to 3 million more impoverished residents than big cities and 9.1 million more than rural areas.
Elizabeth Kneebone, a fellow at the Brookings Institute s Metropolitan Policy martin luther king day 2013 Program and coauthor of Confronting Suburban Poverty in America (Brookings Press), says the number of poor in America s suburbs has been steadily increasing in every decade since the 1980s. The reasons for the shift in location are multiple, she says.
Two economic recessions have certainly contributed, and the foreclosure crisis hit the suburbs the hardest. Within our 100 largest metro areas, about three quarters of the foreclosures that have occurred since the crash of the housing market happened in suburbs, Kneebone says. But other trends such as immigration, the relocation of affordable housing, and the replacement of high-paying manufacturing jobs with low-wage retail martin luther king day 2013 and service industry jobs are also responsible.
Put simply, suburban poverty can grow because martin luther king day 2013 low-income families are moving martin luther king day 2013 into an area or because long-term residents are slipping down the economic ladder. And it s generally a combination of [those] factors, Kneebone says. Isolated incidents
As poverty moves to the suburbs, it presents new challenges for social service agencies trying to meet the growing need, as existing challenges have only been exacerbated in the last decade. martin luther king day 2013 According to Brookings, 73 percent of social service agencies in the suburbs are seeing clients who have never needed to seek help before.
One major challenge is a reluctance to ask for help, particularly on the part of people doing so for the first time, says Liz Carter, executive director of the Cincinnati chapter of the St. Vincent martin luther king day 2013 de Paul Society, which serves the entire metro area. And agencies can t help people who don t ask.
In the wake of the economic collapse, Carter says people
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