Poverty Aid Misfocused

As aid programs continue to focus on battling poverty in cities, suburban areas are becoming the new front lines.

1 minute read

August 16, 2011, 6:00 AM PDT

By Nate Berg


This post from The Brookings Institution argues that poverty programs should pay more attention to suburban poverty.

"Just as immigrants on the whole have followed natives to the suburbs, so have the foreign-born poor followed the native-born poor to these areas. As a result, suburban areas with little or no experience with either immigration or poverty now face complex and unfamiliar public policy challenges.

Traditional anti-poverty programs have focused on central cities, and the suburban infrastructure including local governments, non profits, and private funders have not caught up with the shifting geography of poverty and immigration. In places with little prior history of immigration, service agencies sometimes struggle to help to new influxes of immigrants in diverse languages, and demand for English language classes is often much higher than supply. "

Monday, August 8, 2011 in The Brookings Institution

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Get top-rated, practical training

Historic homes in St. Augustine, Florida.

Florida Considers Legalizing ADUs

Current state law allows — but doesn’t require — cities to permit accessory dwelling units in single-family residential neighborhoods.

March 18, 2025 - Newsweek

Bird's eye view of manufactured home park.

Manufactured Crisis: Losing the Nation’s Largest Source of Unsubsidized Affordable Housing

Manufactured housing communities have long been an affordable housing option for millions of people living in the U.S., but that affordability is disappearing rapidly. How did we get here?

March 25, 2025 - Shelterforce

Aerial view of suburban housing near Las Vegas, Nevada.

HUD Announces Plan to Build Housing on Public Lands

The agency will identify federally owned parcels appropriate for housing development and streamline the regulatory process to lease or transfer land to housing authorities and nonprofit developers.

March 17, 2025 - The Wall Street Journal

White BART trains passing each other on elevated track in Fruitvale, California.

BART Closes $35 Million Deficit

Cost control and revenue generation measures prevented service cuts.

45 minutes ago - Mass Transit

Black hearse seen from behind driving on multilane road.

The New Parisian Hearse is a Bicycle

Sleek, silent, and sustainable, a green trip to the graveyard has hit the streets of the French capital.

1 hour ago - Momentum Magazine

Row of double-headed street lights against orange sunset sky.

How Smart Street Lights Can Help Cities Achieve Sustainability Goals

Switching to energy-efficient LEDs and using tech to program when and how street lighting operates can save cities millions in electricity expenses and bring down carbon emissions.

2 hours ago - Cities Today