Places in Need: The Changing Geography of Poverty and the Future of the Safety Net

Rising poverty and persistent unemployment have become more prominent in suburbs over the past decade. In fact, the Great Recession hit suburbs as hard as cities and currently there are more poor people living in the suburbs of our largest metropolitan areas than in the central cities of those metros. Despite these significant changes in the spatial distribution of poverty, relatively little research has explored what might be driving recent shifts in the geography of poverty  and what these shifts might mean for social welfare policy. To begin to fill these gaps, this project poses several research questions about the changing geography of poverty in the wake of the Great Recession and its implications for the safety net:

• How has the spatial distribution and concentration of poverty changed since 1990?
• How are demographic changes, economic conditions, immigration, the housing market, and patterns of migration related to recent spatial shifts in poverty? What impact did the Great Recession have on the nature or pace of change? Are certain factors more prominent in particular types of urban or suburban communities?
• How has the safety net responded to changes in the geographic distribution of poverty? How have local safety nets responded to need created by the Great Recession?
• How should we structure safety net program delivery and investment to address the new geography of poverty and the lingering economic effects of the Great Recession?     

Strained Suburbs: The Social Service Challenges of Rising Suburban Poverty

Suburbs were home to a large and fast-growing poor population in the 2000s, yet few of the suburban communities studied have a social services infrastructure in place to address the challenges of increasing poverty. The Great Recession has exacerbated this gap between demand and capacity in the suburbs, as nonprofit social service providers have been increasingly asked to help rising numbers of low-income families but with tighter budgets and fewer resources. This project and initial report for the Brookings Institution assess the challenges that rising suburban poverty poses for local safety nets and community-based organizations.

Filling Gaps and Coping with Hardship: The Role of Formal and Informal Sources of Private Support

Although cash and in-kind safety net assistance programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Unemployment Insurance (UI) provide benefits for millions in the aftermath of the Great Recession, formal private support from charitable nonprofit organizations and informal private social support help families experiencing job loss and housing problems cope with hardship. This project focuses on:

• the prevalence of formal and informal private support during and after the Great Recession
• how receipt of private support is related to household attributes, such as age, race, experiences of job loss and housing problems, urban or suburban residence
• factors associated with household decisions to provide informal social support to others in need
• the impact of formal and informal support on material hardship and economic well-being
• the extent to which private support is a complement to or a substitute for support from public safety net programs
• the stability of private support over time