Census reveals 'new poor' in many Twin Cities suburbs

By JEREMY OLSON, Star Tribune
Poverty and joblessness rose sharply in many Twin Cities suburbs last year, according to U.S. census estimates released Tuesday, along with a rise in what advocates call the "new poor'' -- families whose financial stability has crumbled in the economic recession.

In Anoka County, for example, the unemployment rate shot up to 6.8 percent in 2009 from 3.3 percent in 2008. Child poverty in Dakota County more than doubled, to 8.2 percent in 2009, while the rate of uninsured residents increased in Washington County from 5 percent in 2008 to 6.7 percent in 2009.

While the suburbs' numbers may be lower than those in Minneapolis and St. Paul -- urban cores accustomed to battling poverty -- their increases from 2008 to 2009 are what struck many population experts.

"Now poverty is reaching up and snatching people down into it," said Robert Odom, president of Minneapolis-based Love Inc., which mobilizes churches to confront social problems in their communities. "They were pretty secure, living the American dream, and now it's been snatched from them."

The new census data also showed increases in the number of adults who have never married, and a decline in the number of women who gave birth. State Demographer Tom Gillaspy said both are hallmarks of the recession and its impact on people's life choices.

In the big picture, Minnesota remains among the most prosperous and healthy states in the nation, Gillaspy said. However, the data show that the recession and the wave of job cuts that started in 2008 did hurt the state in 2009.

According to the census figures: Minnesota's median household income fell from an inflation-adjusted $56,767 in 2008 to $55,616 in 2009. The state's share of manufacturing jobs continued to slide. The rate of adults without jobs rose from 3.5 percent in 2008 to 5.8 percent in 2009.

The state also saw its rate of residents without health insurance increase from 8.4 percent in 2008 to 9.1 percent in 2009. Only Minnesota and Alaska showed statistically significant increases.

Suburban counties are "moving from a very prosperous kind of attitude to one of very great concern," Gillaspy said. "If you're living out there, even if you have a job, you're going to notice people around you who are losing their jobs or losing their homes."

Advocates for the homeless said more suburban families are coming to urban homeless shelters. Families in Anoka found it so difficult to secure beds in downtown Minneapolis that area churches are now sheltering some of them. The street outreach coordinator for St. Stephen's Human Services in Minneapolis said she has responded to calls of homeless families living in cars in retail parking lots in Edina and Plymouth, and a woods in Minnetonka.

While the census data are a year old, the trends appear to be continuing into 2010, even though the recession technically ended last year.

Anoka County saw a 41 percent increase in food assistance cases from January to July this year. Many families that lost jobs in 2008 benefited from the federal economic stimulus package, which extended unemployment benefits. Now those extended benefits have run out, said Edna Hoium, a veteran social services administrator in Anoka County.

"I would say this is as bad as it's been. It's certainly a longer duration," she said. "It does appear to me to have hit a higher number of people who have never been in our system before."