In the Bay Area, this is part of a startling, sobering trend: "Over the last decade, the number of Bay Area residents living in poverty rose twice as fast in suburbia than in urban areas," according to SF Weekly.
Poverty in the suburbs is now at 16.1 percent, compared to 7.2 percent in cities, the newspaper reported.
In San Francisco, the story is that skyrocketing rents and real estate prices forced the poor out to the outer-county suburbs in Contra Costa, Solano, and other counties.
A very troubling aspect of the findings: "Suburbia wasn't built for poor people -- it lacks the infrastructure," the newspaper reported. There are fewer public services, like parks, public transportation, and other key links to other people the urban poor "enjoy."