Why solving ‘hidden’ suburban poverty is trickier than helping cities
“Lake County, Illinois, located north of Chicago, is considered one of the wealthier parts of the large belt of suburbs that surround the Midwestern metropolis. It’s long been seen, by itself and others, as well-off, successful section of suburbia, popularized in John Hughes films such as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and filled with good school districts and cozy culs-de-sac. It’s also, in many ways, a poster child for the under-examined rise in suburban poverty chronicled in a new book, Places in Need. Despite its reputation, the county has seen the number of people in deep poverty (incomes less than half the federal poverty threshold) double since 1990. It’s one of many stretches of suburbia that, especially in the wake of the Great Recession, has been grappling with a growing poverty issues without the benefit of the same social safety net set up in cities.”