Data: Number of children living in high-poverty areas rises 25 percent in 10 years

BALTIMORE - About 25 percent more children are living in high-poverty areas, according to data released Thursday by the Annie E. Casey Foundation .

The number of children growing up in areas where at least 30 percent of residents live below the federal poverty level – about $22,000 per year for a family of four – jumped to about 7.9 million, or about 11 percent of the nation’s children, according to a new KIDS COUNT® Data Snapshot. That number was 6.3 million in 2011.

In Missouri, the number nearly doubled, from 5 percent in 2000 to 9 percent in 2010. Across the state line in Kansas, the number of children living in high-poverty areas jumped more than three-fold, from 2 percent to 7 percent.

The ACS reports the jumps seen in Kansas and Missouri were not at all uncommon. Nearly all states saw their numbers increase, with the highest rates in Mississippi (23 percent), New Mexico (20 percent), Louisiana (18 percent), Texas (17 percent) and Arizona (16 percent).

"Kids in these high-poverty areas are at risk for health and developmental challenges in almost every aspect of their lives, from education to their chances for economic success as adults," said Laura Speer, associate director for policy reform and data at the Casey Foundation. "Transforming disadvantaged communities into better places to raise children is vital to ensuring the next generation and their families realize their potential."

According to the data, children most-likely to live in areas of concentrated poverty were in the south and southwest, as well as those in urban and rural areas.

Black, American Indian and Latino children are six to nine times more likely to live in high-poverty communities than their white counterparts.

Sister Berta Sailer with Operation Breakthrough in Kansas City called it "destructive poverty."  She said children don't have food to eat and their parents are living in cars.

"We had a mother that lived on a bus stop for a week with two children.  And this is in Kansas City, not in Mexico, Asia or Africa.  It was here in town.  And this woman never missed a day of work.  She brought her kids a six in the morning and picked them up at six at night and lived on a bus stop," said Sister Berta.

Sister Berta said we have to stop blaming people for being poor.  She said some of the hardest working women she knows are at Operation Breakthrough with their children.  

Sister Berta said the community needs to help these families get back on their feet.  She's encouraging people to rally around the poverty problem like they do any other cause, whether it is drunk driving or cancer.

"If you hear there are 5,000 homeless kids in Kansas City, nobody can fix that themselves.  But you can do something for one person.  Or you can do something for an agency that helps, a shelter that helps.  You can't just sit back and say, well, it's them.  The city won't make it if we don't all solve these problems," she said.