Tools for Addressing the Suburbanization of Poverty

Suburban poverty is reading, here are a few ways to understand what that means.

1 minute read

November 13, 2018, 6:00 AM PST

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


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Lisa Schamess shares news of the new "Combating the Suburbanization of Poverty Report" [pdf], published by the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), in partnership with King County GreenTools and the Bullitt Foundation.

To showcase some of the information included in the report, Schamess shares four notable facts about suburban poverty:

  1. Poverty is growing faster in suburbs than in cities. 
  2. The number of suburban residents in poverty is increasing in most regions.
  3. The distance and hidden costs of transportation hit impoverished residents hardest. 
  4. Spatial mismatch, where jobs and housing are spread far apart and not served well by transit, creates a "poverty trap" in the suburbs.

Schamess also ties the report's information and recommendations to the realities and challenges of King County, Washington.

For more information on the report, see another article written by Schamess for CNU

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