Confronting Suburban Poverty in America

7. Modernizing the Metropolitan Opportunity Agenda

In November 2011, a group of representatives from local organizations met in Bay Point, California, one of the Cities of Carquinez at the eastern edge of the San Francisco Bay Area. All of the participants, who included professionals in workforce development, homelessness and hunger prevention, legal aid, human services, philanthropy, and community organizing, were involved in the effort to help area families and communities contend with rising poverty and need in the wake of a devastating recession. After they shared stories of the rapid changes that coursed through East Contra Costa County (“East County”) before and after the housing market crash, and noted the unprecedented demands their organizations were facing, a representative from a local faith-based coalition related that members of more than ten congregations had come together for an “action” on a recent Saturday. When asked what issue they had focused on, he replied: “Jobs, immigration, health care, housing, schools, public safety.” In other words, just about everything. Although everyone was concerned about the numerous issues facing the community, no one seemed to have the capacity to act. Local service providers were thinly staffed and underresourced. Contra Costa County was making significant cuts in services to close a yawning budget gap. Most private philanthropy remained rooted in core cities, such as Oakland and Richmond, or in the neighborhoods of major employers in other suburbs, such as Dublin and Pleasanton. Local Contra Costa media that might have publicized these issues in the past had reduced their coverage because of budget cuts. The Cities of Carquinez were, in a way, suffering an identity crisis. The suburbanization of poverty had transformed them but left them in a policy blind spot. Most local municipal officials had come into office during the housing boom and represented the interests of developers and the middle class, not the diverse populations suffering most from the CHAPTER 7 Modernizing the Metropolitan Opportunity Agenda 113 07-2390-5 ch07_Kneebone 4/22/13 1:57 PM Page 113 crash. The “mental map” of poverty among state policymakers in Sacramento had not caught up with the new reality, leaving local providers at a disadvantage in the scramble for scarce state dollars. Federal stimulus programs to prevent homelessness found their way to seasoned organizations in the western part of the county, not to their eastern counterparts. However, efforts to bring experienced providers into East County faced resistance from local stakeholders who opposed “outside” solutions. Meanwhile, the Bay Area as a whole faced serious questions about the future of these communities. East County was too big and too complicated to survive as just a bedroom suburb for the core of the region. It needed real economic development, more comprehensive local services, an affordable housing strategy, and better connections to the rest of the region. But new climate change laws in California were placing pressure on regions to reduce carbon emissions, and Bay Area planners worried that further investing in the auto-dependent, far-flung East County communities could put many more cars on the highway and cut against those new environmental imperatives. The members and leaders of local East County organizations cared deeply about and understood their communities, no less than their counterparts in any inner-city neighborhood. They knew that the history of these places—former industrial cities with diverse populations and economies—was richer and more complex than the recent boom and bust indicated. These organizations were taking smart steps, like collaborating across issue areas (for example, housing, workforce, financial stability) where they could serve whole families more effectively.1 But they were overwhelmed by the challenges, and they lacked a supportive policy framework that could help them confront those challenges at scale and also might have prevented them in the first place. As the previous chapters have illuminated, many suburban communities could tell a tale similar to that of the Cities of Carquinez. The details might differ, but the sense of identity crisis and an inadequate policy architecture would persist. Fortunately, the innovative responses bubbling up from around the country point the way toward a new framework for confronting suburban poverty. Indeed, these places and their populations do not need a “suburban solution” so much as a smarter vision to promote opportunity for their families and communities regardless of geography. 114 MODERNIZING THE METROPOLITAN OPPORTUNITY AGENDA 07-2390-5 ch07_Kneebone 4/22/13 1:57 PM Page 114 The Current Fiscal and Political Environment Local innovations suggest...