Poverty has crept into bedroom communities around Pittsburgh and across America.
A report released today by the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution shows a 25 percent increase in poverty in suburbs -- nearly five times the rate in cities.
"It is disheartening, but not surprising," said Diana Bucco, president of The Forbes Funds, a Downtown-based group that assists human service agencies and researches nonprofit organizations.
She said residents of older, middle-class communities are coping with flat incomes and rising costs of food, gas, utilities and housing.
"What's traditionally thought of as middle-income, bedroom communities, they're literally being squeezed out," Bucco said.
The study, "The Suburbanization of Poverty: Trends in Metropolitan America, 2000 to 2008," finds that poverty -- defined as an income of $21,834 for a family of four -- went from 20.4 percent to 21.2 percent of Pittsburgh residents. The number of people living in poverty, 58,567, is about the same but the city's population decreased since 2000, so the rate rose slightly.
In the metro region -- Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties -- the number of people living in poverty grew by 20,916 people to 214,040, or 10.6 percent of residents.
"This growth in the suburbs could be reflecting the increased economic challenges that have come from two economic recessions this decade," said Elizabeth Kneebone, a senior research analyst for Brookings and study co-author.
Bucco said South Hills Interfaith Ministries and North Hills Community Outreach see many clients in communities where people do not normally struggle to pay bills.
The Heinz Endowments, the region's second biggest foundation, expanded its family support centers from needy city neighborhoods to outlying communities because of poverty in older suburbs, said spokesman Doug Root.
Over the past year, people calling the United Way of Allegheny County's help line for rental assistance soared 273 percent; for food, 58 percent; shelter for entire families, 83 percent; utilities, 195 percent; and jobs, 313 percent.
"People might be still working but can't afford the things that they used to afford," said Julie DeSeyn, manager for agency investments and financial stability for United Way. "When people lose their jobs, it's going to be people high up on the food chain as well as low on the food chain."
Communities where people are struggling include McKeesport, McKees Rocks, Rankin, Braddock and Clairton, said Reggie Young, the county's deputy director of human services.
"Those are areas where our region used to have steel mills," he said. "Sure, they've been gone for a long time, but those areas are having challenges bringing economic development back."
