from CBS 11 DallasThe private, gated community of 'Starwood' is the symbol of affluence in Frisco.City resident Elizabeth Brzeski was the victim of a house fire. A business failure and a divorce has forced her fast and painful tumble into poverty. She now lives in a government subsidized apartment. Her 5,000 square foot house has been replaced by a three bedroom apartment. "There's a lot of loneliness, even though I have four kids," she said. "I do get lonely."Every week, Brzeski and her four children select 60 pounds of food from the pantry at Frisco Family Services.Her two boys and two girls are learning some of life's toughest lessons. "I tell them not to waste food," Brzeski said. "We're very stringent about just about everything, how much shampoo we use, just because, and it's hard...
from The News RecordBy Richard M. BarronStaff WriterThe area’s poverty statistics are stark and sobering.* More than 62,000 people in Guilford, Rockingham and Randolph counties — but not including Greensboro — are classified as poor.* The number of people on food stamps in High Point is at an all-time high and more than double what it was in the late 1990s.* Rockingham County has lost 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since 2000.Those are some of the reasons a new report ranks the three-county area among the 10 regions with the most suburban poverty in the nation. The study by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, shows that the 2005 poverty rate in Guilford, Rockingham and Randolph counties outside the city of Greensboro is 14.4 percent, a notch below New Orleans...
from The Waterloo Cedar Falls CourierDES MOINES (AP) --- The sprawling suburbs around this capital city have more to brag about than wide open spaces and quiet streets lined with new homes. Suburban Des Moines also has the lowest suburban poverty rate in the nation, according to a new report released Thursday.Last year, the suburban poverty rate in Des Moines was 3.7 percent, while suburban McAllen, Texas, had the highest rate at 43.9 percent, according to the report by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. It studied the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas, examining changes from 1999 to 2005.Suburban Des Moines officials pointed to different factors for the low poverty rate in their communities, from high housing costs to an unwavering work ethic.Dennis Henderson, the...
from The Seattle TimesBy Stephen OhlemacherWASHINGTON — As Americans flee the cities for the suburbs, many are failing to leave poverty behind.The suburban poor outnumbered inner-city counterparts for the first time last year, with more than 12 million suburban residents living in poverty, according to a study of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas released today."Economies are regional now," said Alan Berube, who co-wrote the report for the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "Where you see increases in city poverty, in almost every metropolitan area, you also see increases in suburban poverty."Nationally, the poverty rate leveled off last year at 12.6 percent after increasing every year since the decade began. It was a period during which the country went through a...