BY ELLEN LYNCH
When President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a national War on Poverty in 1964, the battlegrounds were inner cities and rural areas ”“ that”™s where most poor Americans lived at the time.
Fast-forward 50 years and the war wages on. If you can believe it, we”™re actually no closer to hoisting up a victory flag. If anything, we”™re farther away from winning this war.
While urban and rural America still have their unique challenges, the fastest-growing poor populations are in the suburbs, enclaves outside the big cities of Chicago, Washington, D.C., and New York City. A decade-long Brookings Institution study started in 2006 found that there seems to be “more poor people in metro areas living outside of big cities than within them.”
In fact, there are about 3 million more.
As of 2011, the number of poor people living in the suburbs in this country spiked to 16.4 million, a 64 percent increase since 2000, compared with 13.4 million in cities.
In a 2012 article, “Poverty Has A New Address: Suburbia,” Michelle Hirsch wrote the past decade has marked the most significant rise in poverty in modern times. Using current census data, she reported that 1 in 6 people in the U.S. is poor, compared with 1-in-10 Americans a decade ago.
The Great Recession is partly to blame as are other related factors such as a scarcity of jobs (high unemployment), an implosion of the housing market, high food and gas prices and a cutback of government services, among others.
Here in Westchester, we have pockets of poverty in Yonkers, Mount Vernon, White Plains, Peekskill and New Rochelle. But here, too, the challenges are not limited to urban enclaves: Towns and villages like Port Chester, Mount Kisco and Ossining have their share of poverty as well. Despite our relative wealth here and reputation as being one of the wealthiest counties in the country, you can”™t drive five minutes without finding people living on the brink or those who don”™t know how they”™re going to pay for their next grocery run ”“ that”™s because no community is immune to poverty, not even our wealthiest ones.
The Food Bank for Westchester”™s own data on food distribution matches this: Of the 6.6 million pounds of food that we distribute, large amounts go to the cities. But a significant number of meals are also going to places like Ardsley, Briarcliff Manor, Tuckahoe, Pleasantville and Mohegan Lake.
That”™s because nearly 90,000 people, or more than 9 percent of Westchester”™s population, live at or below the poverty line, according to recent U.S. Census figures. For a family of four, that means they are living on less than $24,000 a year. Try paying rent, buying groceries and filling your gas tank on that income. It”™s impossible, especially when you consider that rents for two-bedroom apartments are upwards of $2,000 a month, and gas and milk routinely hover around $4 a gallon. The numbers needed to get by simply don”™t add up.
Among those most affected in Westchester are children and senior citizens. Almost one-out-of-four children in this county live well below the federal poverty line. A few years ago, The Westchester Children”™s Association estimated that roughly 53,000 children ”“ almost 1 in 4 ”“ were living in homes where the household income was $42,400 or below.
More than 25,000 children in elementary schools are eligible for free or reduced lunches at public schools, according to the U.S. Department of Education. When middle-schoolers are included, the number jumps to more than 32,000, and includes students in Bedford, Chappaqua, Harrison, Rye, North Salem and other hamlets that we don”™t typically associate with poverty.
For senior citizens on fixed incomes ”“ including many who may own their own home, but are having a tough time paying increasingly higher property taxes ”“ the upward trajectory shows that things are getting worse.
In both poverty scenarios ”“ children and seniors ”“ they are living in plain sight of most of us. We see the faces of hunger and poverty every day, but don”™t always recognize or acknowledge them.
Clearly, they need our help. Perhaps, more than ever.
President Johnson”™s war created many important programs, including Head Start, Food Stamps, Medicare and Medicaid. But to borrow a phrase from him, “there”™s so much we have yet to do.”
Ellen Lynch is the executive director of The Food Bank of Westchester. To learn more, visit foodbankforwestchester.org or call (914) 923-1100.
Hunger in Westchester is real, and has truly mushroomed over the last decade. Perhaps the lack of affordable housing is a key factor, among others cited in this excellent article. Thank you for shining a light on this onerous problem that remains out of sight and largely out of mind. Because it’s not so visible and it’s tough to understand, the suburban hungry remain in the shadows. And it doesn’t help that national rhetoric tends to vilify the poor. The Foodbank for Westchester is one of the area’s most efficient businesses, but it can’t work adequately unless many more become involved and contribute. We all need to help.