milwaukee emerged as america's fourth-most impoverished big city in 2009, as the great recession rippled across the city and state, according to u.s. census bureau figures released tuesday. milwaukee's poverty rate reached 27%, up from 23.4% in the previous year. only detroit (36.4%), cleveland (35%) and buffalo (28.8%) had higher poverty rates among cities with populations greater than 250,000. milwaukee was ranked 11th in 2008. an estimated 158,245 milwaukeeans lived in poverty last year. for a family of four with two adults and two children, the poverty threshold was an annual income of $21,954. what's more, nearly 4 in 10 children in milwaukee were considered poor, meaning an estimated 62,432 children lived in poverty last year, up from 49,952 in 2008. milwaukee mayor tom barrett, a democrat who is running for governor, said the poverty numbers "are unacceptable and should be of concern to everyone in the community and the state." "they obviously are in part a result of the global economic downturn which has disproportionately affected lower incomes," he said. "but it has also sent lower middle-class people into poverty as well. it explains why we're looking so aggressive to create more jobs, tackle the issues of education, workforce development and transportation." milwaukee county executive scott walker, the republican candidate for governor, said the "anti-business" policies of democrats barrett and sitting governor jim doyle have directly affected "the poverty levels in milwaukee and cities across our state." "as governor, i'll work to get government out of the way so we can help struggling families and bring 250,000 jobs to wisconsin," walker said in a statement. barrett disputed walker's assertion and said, "i have never seen any signs that he is interested in addressing the poverty issues in our community, period." he said that jobs provide the best remedy for alleviating poverty and added that he would prefer the issue not be politicized. "i wish this is one (issue) we could reach across the aisle and work together," barrett said. michael bonds, president of the milwaukee school board, said he was not surprised by the newest poverty figures. "i think we're at a critical point when we're starting to see some of the broader things in the community impacting students," he said. "not only do schools have to deal with traditional education, but now they also have to provide supports that were traditionally provided by other agencies, because those institutions are also facing financial challenges," he added. bonds said he doesn't see any quick-fix to bring children out of poverty in milwaukee. "some areas of the city, you see african-american unemployment reaching 60% to 70%," he said. marc levine, executive director of the center for economic development at the university of wisconsin-milwaukee, said the latest census data reflect the city's lack of job growth. "our analysis of employment data shows that milwaukee has had among the worst job creation records of any big city in the u.s. for over a decade, so it is not surprising that poverty numbers have worsened, especially during the worst recession since the great depression," levine said. hard times didn't hit just in milwaukee. real median household income in the state declined between 2008 and 2009 - decreasing by 3.8% from $51,942 to $49,993. poverty also surged statewide from 10.4% to 12.4% in 2009. there were an estimated 570,583 people in poverty in the state in 2008 and 683,408 people in poverty in 2009. nationally, poverty increased from 38.3 million people in 2008 to 42.8 million in 2009. ken taylor, executive director of the wisconsin council on children and families, labeled the poverty numbers as "brutal" and said they "confirm our worst fears about the reality of the recession on kids." "the idea that what happens in milwaukee doesn't influence ozaukee county is a fallacy," he said. "we're all affected across the state by the challenges in milwaukee." in the suburbs outside milwaukee, the poverty rates were much lower, led by waukesha county (4.8%) while ozaukee (5.3%) and washington (5.4%) counties were not much higher. the poverty rates in those counties all increased at least 1 percentage point. the results come from the american community survey, which provides a snapshot of the nation's socioeconomic, housing and demographic characteristics. later this year, the census bureau will release the first results from the 2010 census, the complete count of every person in the country. erin richards of the journal sentinel staff contributed to this report.
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