Poverty worsens in U.S., but not in Hampton Roads

The ranks of America's poorest poor have climbed to a record high - 1 in 15 people - spread widely across metropolitan areas as the housing bust has pushed many inner-city poor into suburbs and other outlying places, and shriveled jobs and income. New census data paint a stark portrait of the nation's haves and have-nots at a time when unemployment remains persistently high.

It comes a week before the government releases first-ever economic data that will show that more Hispanics, elderly and working-age poor have fallen into poverty.

In all, the numbers underscore the breadth and scope by which the downturn has reached into mainstream America.

"There now really is no unaffected group, except maybe the very top income-earners," said Robert Moffitt, a professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University. "The worry now is that the downturn... will have long-lasting effects on families who lose jobs, become worse off and can't recover."

Traditional inner-city black ghettos are thinning out and changing, drawing in impoverished Hispanics who have low-wage jobs or are unemployed. Neighborhoods with poverty rates of at least 40 percent are stretching over broader areas, increasing in suburbs at twice the rate of cities.

Once-booming Sun Belt metro areas are now seeing some of the biggest jumps in concentrated poverty.

About 20.5 million Americans, or 6.7 percent of the U.S. population, make up the poorest poor, defined as those at 50 percent or less of the official poverty level. Those living in deep poverty represent nearly half of the 46.2 million people scraping by below the poverty line. In 2010, the poorest poor meant an income of $5,570 or less for an individual and $11,157 for a family of four.

That 6.7 percent share is the highest in the 35 years that the Census Bureau has maintained such records, surpassing previous highs in 2009 and 1993 of just over 6 percent.

Broken down by states, 40 states and the District of Columbia had increases in the poorest poor since 2007, and none saw decreases. The District of Columbia ranked highest at 10.7 percent, followed by Mississippi and New Mexico. Nevada had the biggest jump, rising from 4.6 percent to 7 percent.

Concentrated poverty also spread wider.

After declining during the 1990s economic boom, the proportion of poor people in large metropolitan areas who lived in high-poverty neighborhoods jumped from 11.2 percent in 2000 to 15.1 percent last year, according to a Brookings Institution analysis to be released today. Such geographically concentrated poverty in the U.S. is now at the highest since 1990, after a decade of high unemployment and rising energy costs.

Hampton Roads bucked that national trend. Instead of gaining people in areas of extreme poverty, the region saw one of the largest decreases in concentrated poverty rates in the country, according to the Brookings report.

Nearly 20,000 fewer people lived in high-poverty neighborhoods in Hampton Roads by the end of the decade, according to the report. Only eight U.S. metro areas saw a bigger decrease in concentrated poverty rates in their cities, and only four U.S. areas saw a bigger drop in poverty rates in their regions' suburban neighborhoods.

Extreme poverty today continues to be prevalent in the industrial Midwest, including Detroit, Grand Rapids, Mich., and Akron, Ohio, because of a renewed decline in manufacturing. But the biggest growth in high-poverty areas is occurring in newer Sun Belt metro areas such as Las Vegas; Riverside, Calif.; and Cape Coral, Fla., after the plummeting housing market wiped out home values and dried up construction jobs.

The more recent broader migration of the U.S. population, including working- and middle-class blacks, to the South and to suburbs helps explain some of the shifts in poverty.

A study by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies found that the population of 133 historically black ghettos had dropped 36 percent since 1970, as the U.S. black population's growth slowed and many blacks moved to new areas. The newest residents in these ghettos are now more likely to be Hispanic, who have more than tripled their share in the neighborhoods, to 21 percent.

Poverty for Americans 65 and older is on track to nearly double after factoring in rising out-of-pocket medical expenses, from 9 percent to more than 15 percent. Poverty increases are also anticipated for the working-age population because of commuting and child-care costs, while child poverty will dip partly because of the positive effect of food stamps.

This story was compiled from reports by The Associated Press and Pilot writer Dave Forster.