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BY FRANCINE KNOWLES~Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago area suburbs saw a 47 percent spike in the number of poor, and the nation’s suburbs were home to the largest and fastest-growing poor population in the country from 2000 to 2008.
That’s according to a new Brookings Institution report that showed a 15.4 percent jump in the nation’s poor as 5.2 million more people were added to the poverty rolls in a decade hit by two recessions.
he number of poor people in the suburbs of the country’s largest metropolitan areas grew 25 percent, almost five times faster than in primary cities, the report found.
The rise of the number of poor in suburban communities was linked to the recession, the fact that the population as a whole is growing at a faster rate in suburban communities and the availability of affordable housing options in those areas.
The number of poor living in Chicago, Naperville and Joliet edged up a statistically insignificant 1 percent to more than 578,000. But in their surrounding suburban communities, the number jumped nearly 172,000 to more than 535,000, a 47 percent increase. Cook, Lake and Kane counties had the largest increase in the number of poor.
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