The Rise of the Suburban Poor

I was on the road addressing local business and civic groups about the extreme poverty and blight that exists in Gary, Indiana, and how their support of The Salvation Army and other nonprofits working together can turn things around. The spread of COVID-19 had been a hot topic in the news for a month or so with matters getting worse in the United States. The first COVID-19 infections were beginning to appear in Lake County and the rest of Indiana with directions given by some federal and state officials for "non-essential" businesses to temporarily close to slow the spread of the virus.

When I returned to my office later that afternoon I noticed the light on my telephone alerting me that someone had left a voicemail message. The message was from a young single mother from Dyer, Indiana who just returned from her employer, an upscale restaurant. Sobbing while leaving her message, the young lady had gone to her job as a bartender only to be told that the restaurant had closed indefinitely due to the threat of COVID-19. She said that she had never asked for help from a social services agency before, but she didn't know how she was going to make her mortgage payments and feed her kids otherwise. So she called her local Salvation Army.

I returned the single mom's call to learn more about her situation and to refer her to the services needed most. She told me that she had been a bartender at the restaurant for a few years since her divorce. She needed the service-industry job to supplement the child support she receives from her former husband. She lives in a newer house in a rather well-to-do community. Monthly utilities, mortgage and car payments need to be made. Food and clothing need to be purchased. "The responsibilities don't stop because you've lost your main source of financial support," she said.

Welcome to the often secret world of the suburban poor. Most often single parents and the elderly who once had it good, but now find themselves in a most desperate spot. Would it surprise you to know that the United States by far has the highest rate of single-parent households at 23%? That's three times higher than the rest of the world! Lake County Indiana is a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. In Lake County bedroom communities like St. John, Schererville and Munster, it would be difficult to believe that there are families living among other residents who are homeless or living under the poverty level. According to a 2019 Pew Research study, in Lake County Indiana 41% of households with children are single-parent households, most of them led by single mothers who must work part or full-time jobs in order to supplement their child support, if they are receiving it at all. Most of these moms are/were employed in the service industries... most of these employers now considered to be "non-essential businesses."

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, two factors have driven more households in Lake County Indiana into poverty than anything else, particularly single-parent households -- jobs lost in the service industries due to business closure or reduced operations, and historic population growth. Lake County is growing at a fevered pace as Illinois residents flee to escape the oppressive taxes of that state. With this unprecedented growth comes high demand for housing, causing dramatic increases in monthly rent, now no longer affordable by many new and long-time residents of the county.

My job isn't case management or social work. I help to raise money so the good work of The Salvation Army can be accomplished. However, the human need has been so great since the pandemic began that I now often find myself answering the calls for assistance from those who are now without food to eat or a place to sleep, or at risk of becoming homeless. As I meet with The Salvation Army donors, I now make it a habit to ask them to be on the lookout for individuals and families in their neighborhood who may be desperate and in need of our services. They may be families you invite to your backyard barbecues or with children who ride the school bus with your kids. I will say, "Your neighbors may live in a big, beautiful house... but the situation of those living inside may be heartbreaking."