Yes Moneyjames, It's starting to happen in many States. Many cites across America are on the brink of total depression. Poverty is not slowing down and has been at a steady pace upwards since 2000. Here's whats happening in my state.
Poverty Comes to Suburb Poverty's expansion in suburban Phoenix and Tucson has outpaced its growth in the core cities, exposing the economy's impact on the middle class, a new study shows.
In suburban Phoenix, the number of people living at or below the federal poverty line rose 134.2 percent from 2000 to 2011, compared with 67.9 percent growth of poor in the city itself, the Brookings Institution reported in a study called "Confronting Suburban Poverty in America."
In suburban Tucson, the number in poverty rose 83.8 percent in that 11-year period, compared with 55.5 percent in the city, the study said.
Those increases are similar to the national trend for major metropolitan areas, with the number in poverty up 64 percent in suburban areas and up 29 percent in cities, Brookings reported.
In Arizona, the trend is showing up in the waiting rooms and lines at suburban social service agencies, where people come to look for help finding jobs, paying rent or mortgages, keeping their utilities on and even for food boxes.
Patt-Smith. She said her agency served 2,000 people in the 2007 fiscal year, and more than 4,000 in the 12 months that ended on June 30, with much of the increase coming among those who had never before asked for help.
"The growth has been in what we call situational poverty," Patt-Smith said. "Something has happened. In this case, one of the major things that happened is the economy: people losing jobs, health care costs, child care costs, affordable housing. All these issues are really making the middle class edge themselves down closer and closer to that...poverty level."
"Forty-five percent of Arizonans lack three months' savings to cover their basic living expenses," Whitsett said. "So those are people who might be one crisis away from falling into poverty."
Children are especially vulnerable, she said. Arizona's poverty rate is 19 percent, meaning about 1.2 million of the state's residents are living below the federal poverty line. Among children, the rate is 25 percent, Whitsett said, and that includes 500,000 children who are "food insecure, meaning they don't know where their next meal is coming from. https://www.azpm.org/p/top-news/2013/7/19/25524-az-week-poverty-comes-to-suburbs/
Hear about the state's poverty demographics from Arizona Indicators, a research organization tracking economic data.
-Find out how the face of poverty has changed in Tempe as a result of the state's economic downturn. -Learn how community services have expanded to meet the demand of more suburban poverty in the Tucson metro area.
The U.S. Census Bureau has named Tucson among the most impoverished large U.S. cities, based on the number of people living in poverty.
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