The poverty rate is at its highest in almost two decades, and now the suburbs are home (or lack thereof) to more people below the poverty line than cities. It's not just the rural areas anymore.

"The number of suburban residents living in poverty jumped by almost 64% from 2000 to 2011, which means about 16.4 million suburban residents now struggle with low incomes," Elizabeth Kneebone, a fellow at the Brookings Institute, [said]. Her research will be published in May in a book called Confronting Suburban Poverty in America."

The Median real household income is down to $62,273, and in suburbs across the country, the impoverished are retreating from their mortgages to the tenuous refuge of places like the Ramada Inn. What happens when they can't afford the week-to-week? What happens to the moral outrage over support systems when the homeless are pitching a tent along the favorite jogging trail?

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