Poverty rising in sub-urban Inland Empire

Up 31% between 07-09

Jon Boyd, Oct 17, 10.

Southern California’s Inland Empire, a metropolitan statistical area of Greater Los Angeles, has seen its poverty rate rise 31% between 2007-2009, according to Harold Blume of the Los Angeles Times. “Inland Empire” includes the cities of Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ontario - all located within two large, inland counties bordering Arizona.

The Los Angeles Time writes:

Poverty is increasing in the Riverside, San Bernardino and Ontario areas at one of the nation’s highest rates, a study released Thursday concluded.

The poverty rate in those sections of the Inland Empire surged about 31% from 2007 to 2009, according to research from the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution.

Companion research, also just released by Brookings, suggests that the social safety net in such fast-growing suburban areas is dangerously thin, compounding economic hardships.

Bakersfield also has been hard hit, with poverty increasing 23%.

Poverty is increasing in the Riverside, San Bernardino and Ontario areas at one of the nation’s highest rates, a study released Thursday concluded.

The poverty rate in those sections of the Inland Empire surged about 31% from 2007 to 2009, according to research from the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution.

Companion research, also just released by Brookings, suggests that the social safety net in such fast-growing suburban areas is dangerously thin, compounding economic hardships.
Bakersfield also has been hard hit, with poverty increasing 23%.

“These areas are on the front lines of the Great Recession,” said Brookings senior research associate Elizabeth Kneebone, author of the study, which is based on census data.

The problem is not entirely cyclical, Kneebone said. In many areas, poverty climbed during the middle of the last decade, a period officially classified as one of economic growth.

Poverty exploded in many regions with the recession, which showed itself early in the Inland Empire through the collapse of the housing market.

Nationwide, the number of poor people in large metropolitan areas grew by 5.5 million from 1999 to 2009. More than two-thirds of that growth occurred in suburbs. In fact, by 2009, 1.6 million more poor people lived in the suburbs of the nation’s largest metro areas than in the cities, the study found.

This movement of the poor to suburbs poses an added challenge.

“The safety nets are much less developed,” Kneebone said. “They are stretched thin and patchier in terms of services that can be provided.”
Catholic Charities in San Bernardino and Riverside counties is getting at least 150 calls a day for housing assistance and 200 a day for help with food.

“The number of people requesting services has increased, but the dollars for us to deliver the services have been the same,” said Belinda Marquez, director of family and community services for Catholic Charities in Riverside County. “We have just been overwhelmed.”