The Columbus Dispatch

12/8/2006

Catherine Candisky and Jim Woods

Columbus’ poverty rate has increased more since 1999 than in all but nine other large U.S. cities, a new report shows.

Nearly one in five Columbus residents lived in poverty last year, up from 1 in 7 residents seven years ago, according to a study by the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based research group. Six of the 11 cities with the worst poverty increases are in Ohio and Michigan.

Columbus recorded the nation’s ninth-greatest increase in child poverty: from 19 percent to 27 percent.

Cleveland had the nation’s biggest increase; Toledo tied for fourth place. Columbus tied for 10 th-worst with Grand Rapids, Mich.

Mark Real, president of the research organization KidsOhio.org, said the period studied “was a rough time for the Ohio economy.”

The child poverty rate for Columbus mirrors the increase in free and reduced-price lunches for the Columbus school district, Real said. The portion of Columbus students who qualify increased from 55 percent in 2000 to 75 percent in 2005.

But the Brookings study showed poverty isn’t confined to major cities; suburbs have become home to a grow- ing number of America’s poor. One of the key findings of the report was that the number of suburban poor now exceeds those living in cities by more than 1 million nationwide.

That was not duplicated in central Ohio, despite a poverty rate for children in the area surrounding Columbus increasing to one out of 10 - up from about one in 13 in 1999.

That comes as no surprise to those who help suburban Columbus residents living on the edge.

Westerville is a prosperous suburb, but the Westerville Area Resource Ministry has its hands full.

WARM serves people living in the Westerville School District, which sprawls over 52 square miles and includes neighborhoods as far south as Morse Road. Scott Marier, executive director of WARM, said nearly 1 in 5 of the district’s students qualifies for free and reduced lunches.

The Westerville ministry estimates that it will serve 6,500 people this year, a 32 percent increase from last year. It’s anticipated that the ministry will distribute between 110 and 115 tons of food and material compared with 89 tons last year.

Marier said a greater number of people of modest means are moving into the suburbs.

“They are gravitating towards the school systems and safer neighborhoods,” Marier said. “They are not moving because they have better jobs.”

The number of people living in poverty last year was 128,163, up from 102,723 in 1999. In the suburbs, the number living in poverty grew to 73,075 last year, up from 52,679 in 1999.

The study defined Columbus’ suburbs as Delaware, Fairfield, Franklin, Licking, Madison, Morrow, Pickaway and Union counties.

“This is a new phenomenon, but probably a long time coming,” Alan Berube, a co-author of the report, said of poverty’s shift to the suburbs.

“Suburbs have been growing faster than cities for 40 years. It was inevitable that they would be taking on a larger poor population,” he said. “Lower-wage jobs are moving to the suburbs and lower-wage workers are following those jobs.”

George Zeller, an economic analyst for the Clevelandbased Center for Community Solutions, said the Columbus area has been better off than other parts of the state but the city is not immune from economic trends. And the problems impact the inner city and surrounding suburbs.

“Incomes didn’t just fall in Columbus, they fell in Upper Arlington and Bexley, too. There are lower incomes across the entire region with a few exceptions,” Zeller said.

Reynoldsburg Helping Hands used to regularly serve about 35 families a month. In April, the number increased to 50 to 60 families a month, said Suzanne Read, chairwoman of the volunteer organization’s board.

Read said the increase seemed to coincide with the spike in gasoline prices over the summer.

Most of the people served by Reynoldsburg’s ministry work but struggle to make ends meet.

“They have an illness or a car repair and get behind. I am sure the situation is not unique,” Read said.

A family of four with an income of $20,000 or less is considered by the federal government to be in poverty.

ccandisky@dispatch.com

jwoods@dispatch.com

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