Suburban Poverty Report

Report on Suburban Poverty Village of Tinley Park, IL

Ashley Sarver – Economic Development Dept.

August 2013

Report completed in response to a Brookings Institution report released in the Chicago TribLocal in early June, 2013 which identified that poverty has increased in Chicago suburban communities including Tinley Park.

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Ashley Sarver, Economic Development Dept., August ‘13 Research on Poverty in the Suburbs The Brookings Institution released a study that looks in to the issue of poverty growth in the suburbs. Attached is a map from the TribLocal indicating that poverty has increased in Tinley Park as well as many other suburban communities not usually associated with poverty. This is not an issue unique to Tinley Park nor the Chicago metro but is a national trend; 85 out of the 95 largest metropolitan areas experienced significant growth in suburban poor from 2000 to 2010. Facts about suburban poverty:

• More poor people live in the suburbs than big cities or rural areas. • Suburban poor: 16.4 million • Urban poor: 13.4 million • Rural poor: 7.3 million • As jobs came in to the suburbs so did poverty, following low-paying service jobs in retail and hospitality. • Industries that suffered through the Recession like construction, manufacturing, and retail hit the suburbs and

those who lived in them especially hard. • Immigration accounted for only a portion of suburban poverty growth. Immigration led to 30% overall

population growth in suburbs, but just 17% of the increase in poor. • Affordable housing vouchers replaced high-density urban housing projects, allowing the poor to move to

suburbs. The attached graphs show changes in the following communities from the early part of 2000 to 2010 for two (2) categories:

• Group 1: Communities that experienced a positive percentage point change in the poverty rate: o Arlington Heights (1.4%) o Bolingbrook (3.2%) o Glen Ellyn (2.7%) o Glenview (1.4%) o Palatine (3.3%) o Schaumburg (3.4%) o Tinley Park (2.9%)

• Group 2: Communities that did not experience a positive percentage point change in the poverty rate: o Lombard o Orland Park

The metrics were performed with the aim of finding trends amongst communities that experienced a positive percentage point change or to find ways in which Group 1(especially Tinley Park) differed from Group 2 using factors that were mentioned in the Brookings Institution study to have influenced the increase of the suburban poor. Conclusions From this research, the increase in poverty is likely due to the decrease in the Construction, Manufacturing, and Real Estate sectors and the new housing influx in Group 1 communities from 2000-2007 that was likely supported by sub-prime mortgages. However, no over-arching factor pinpoints why poverty has been distributed throughout the suburbs in the way in which it has though it is probable the unusually high housing development in 1995-2005 and the 2008-2012 recession are impacting the poverty rates in the metro area.

• Lombard and Orland Park had less severe peaks in the tenure of their owner-occupied housing units. This shows that Tinley Park’s most residents bought homes in the 2000 to 2007 period, whereas Lombard and Orland Park (Group 2) had a good portion of their residents purchase homes in the 1990 to 1999 period as well. This may point to more stable buyers during the 1990 to 1999 period.

• All communities experienced a decrease in median household income; however, Tinley Park’s decrease was less than most.

• All communities saw a drastic decrease in residential housing permits being issued from 2003 to 2011, though as the graph shows, Tinley Park reached a relatively high peak in 2003. The fall from this peak may have had influence on the increase in poverty.

• While the majority of communities saw a percentage increase in their population from 2000 to 2010, the increase in Tinley Park was substantial. This aligns with the information regarding the high number of residential building permits in the early 2000s in Tinley Park.

• Changes in race and ethnicity for Tinley Park, Orland Park, and Lombard are represented in the graphs below. Most communities in both Group 1 and 2 saw decreases in white population, and increases in Asian, Hispanic, black, other and multi-racial populations.

• As the accompanying map shows, many of the suburban communities affected by an increase in the poverty rate from 2000 to 2008-2010 are on the outer periphery of the metro area, though not all.

• All communities saw a decrease in the share of Construction, Manufacturing, and Real Estate sectors in their economies.

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