[00:00.00]By all appearances, Leigh Scozzari is living a comfortable suburban life.
[00:09.55]She baked cookies one recent afternoon with her four-year-old twins at her mom¡¯s place in Shirley, Long Island - about 65 miles east of New York City.
[00:18.38]Scozzari owns an SUV¡­ the girls spend their days at a nice day care center ...and Scozzari works a full-time job.
[00:25.80]A lot of people look at me and they judge me just by looking at me, like, "Okay, well, she has a job, you know.
[00:32.09]She-- you know, she has a home and-- you know, her kids look very well taken care of. 
[00:38.75]Why would she need any help at all?"
[00:41.61]Scozzari needs help because by official standards, she and her daughters live in poverty.
[00:47.24]Her job as a certified medical assistant pays just over 19,000 a year and offers no benefits.
[00:54.72]So Scozzari is on Medicaid, gets food stamps, and a government subsidy to pay for child care she could never otherwise afford.
[01:03.47]This 30-year old single mom lives in that two-bedroom house with her mother and pays rent.
[01:09.14]Her car has almost 200,000 miles on it and is in such bad shape Scozzari says she¡¯s afraid to drive it.
[01:17.14]I live paycheck to paycheck.? That¡¯s what it is right now.
[01:20.59]Do you have any savings?
[01:22.78]Typically, I have enough probably to get me through the next week or so.
[01:28.91]But as far as having a savings, no. I worry about-- not being able to have enough food to feed the girls. 
[01:34.89]I worry about them not having the opportunities that other kids-- are going to have. 
[01:41.06]So I'm constantly worrying, you know, always worrying.
[01:45.47]According to experts, stories like Leigh Scozzari¡¯s are becoming more common across the United States.
[01:51.64]There are now more poor residents living in suburbs than in major cities.
[01:55.27]Elizabeth Kneebone is a fellow at The Brookings Institutionand co-author of the book, ¡°Confronting Suburban Poverty in America.¡±
[02:02.20]Poverty in these kinds of communities can be hidden.
[02:04.59]It can be harder to identify-- or-- even understand the extent to which the need has grown, because it may not be-- easily visible.
[02:15.25]Today the nation¡¯s poverty rate is about 15 percent compared to 19 percent in 1964 when President Johnson declared the War on Poverty.
[02:24.45]Our aim is not only to relieve the symptom of poverty, but to cure it.
[02:30.83]Kneebone says since then, some aspects of the problem have changed dramatically.
[02:35.66]When we saw the sort of launch of the war on poverty-- the geography of poverty, it was very different than what we're looking at today.
[02:43.24]The bulk of poor people in the country lived in urban areas, in big cities or in rural communities. And since that time, we've seen a real shift.
[02:53.32]According to Kneebone, since 2000, the number of poor people living in suburbs has grown by 65 percent.
[03:00.89]For example, poverty is up by almost 16 percent in the suburbs of Pittsburgh.? Up more than 27 percent in the suburbs of providence.
[03:09.81]Nearly 79 percent outside Seattle.? And in the suburbs of Austin, Texas, the number of poor has swelled almost 143 percent.
[03:20.17]More poor people now live in America¡¯s suburbs than in cities or in rural areas.
[03:25.10]The main explanation for this shift is simply demographics.
[03:28.45]Many more Americans have moved to suburbs in recent years, and that growth included low-income residents and new immigrants.
[03:35.37]Other factors - suburbs are still recovering from the foreclosure and financial crises.
[03:40.78]Kneebone says federal programs for the poor were mostly designed back in the 60¡¯s with rural or urban communities in mind, 
[03:47.60]and when hard times came to the suburbs, many weren¡¯t prepared.
[03:51.68]Often suburban communities-- have not built up the same level of infrastructure-- and-- safety net supports that cities have been building up over decades.
[04:03.37]Oh, boy.? Where do I begin with the challenges?
[04:09.51]Richard Koubek chairs the Welfare to Work Commission in Suffolk County, where Leigh Scozzari lives.
[04:14.43]It advises the county legislature on issues affecting low-income residents.
[04:18.76]Local governments ¨C already strapped themselves - face greater burdens in the face of federal budget cuts and the winding down of stimulus funds.
[04:26.65]Suffolk County in the last couple of years has faced $500 million deficit.
[04:32.82]Even though Suffolk County has one of the highest median household incomes in the country, 
[04:37.06]and multi-million dollar homes in the Hamptons¡­ the food stamp caseload has soared, up 185 percent in the past six years.
[04:45.93]That¡¯s the case throughout much of America¡­.food stamp use up dramatically¡­ from coast to coast.
[04:51.72]It can be very difficult, especially in this budget-constrained environment, to try and scale up to meet the level of need that they're seeing.
[05:00.24]In Suffolk County, charities have stepped as the local government has had a hard time meeting the demand. 
[05:05.62]Food pantry organizers say they¡¯ve seen numbers double in recent years¡­ even in some of the county¡¯s most affluent towns.
[05:13.09]Carol Yarmosh leads the mercy house food pantry in Dix Hills.
[05:16.52]We used to be a one of a few food pantries.? But now we're one of very many food pantries.
[05:21.76]It's-- multiplying on a level that it's hard to comprehend.
[05:26.75]Advocates say they¡¯re not just serving people out ofwork. 
[05:29.94]They see many with jobs who just can¡¯t make ends meet ¨C just like Leigh Scozzari.
[05:34.71]Nationally, real wages, adjusted for inflation, have been flat for several decades¡­even as costs continue to rise.
[05:42.96]We also have these larger shifts in the economy where a lot of the jobs we're creating-- don't pay enough to make ends meet for a family. 
[05:50.58]So, even if you're working full time-- you're just not taking home enough.
[05:54.87]that's especially true in Suffolk County, where many working poor don't qualify for government help 
[06:00.69]because they earn too much to be considered officially "poor" - around $23,500 for a family of four.
[06:07.92]Despite our affluence, we have a lot of middle income people who are struggling.
[06:12.75]We are one of the most expensive communities in the United States in terms of everything, gasoline, housing, food.
[06:21.99]In 2012, Koubek¡¯s commission put out a study estimating that, because of the high cost of living here, 
[06:28.10]the poverty rate¡¯s at least 20 percent¨C that¡¯s three times higher than the official census figure of less than 7 percent.
[06:36.81]Another major problem and expense: transportation.? In many suburbs, public transportation is limited.
[06:43.83]Until recently, buses in Suffolk County didn¡¯t run on Sundays.
[06:47.66]If you're a working poor person, if you're for example, a home health aide, many of them work on Sundays, what do you do?
[06:53.23]How do you get to work?? /unless someone drives you, you take a cab which could eat up 20 to 50 percent of what you're earning that day.
[07:01.72]So many poor people, like Leigh Scozzari, depend on their car.
[07:06.80]And car insurance and gas eat up about $600 ¨C more than 40 percent -- of the estimated $1400 she takes home each month.
[07:15.96]And in case you¡¯re wondering, Scozzari's mom, who just turned 60, really isn¡¯t in a position to help.
[07:21.97]She¡¯s working two jobs to maintain the family home she inherited.
[07:25.37]And last year paid property taxes of around $7000 on their small two-bedroom home.
[07:31.33]So why do you stay in this house if it-- and in this neighborhood if it's so expensive?
[07:34.65]This is her home.? She says she'll never leave here.
[07:42.18]I mean, I can't force her to want to leave just because the cost of living's inexpensive someplace else.
[07:47.07]Scozzari says she¡¯s also gotten no help from the twins¡¯ father.
[07:52.73]Child enforcement-- is trying to help me locate Dad.
[07:56.18]Before I even knew that I was pregnant with them, I got up one day and he was gone.?
[08:01.21]Some people might say, "Okay, the situation happened to you.? But why should taxpayers help fund-- some of these programs that you are being helped by?"
[08:11.57]I mean, I started working when I was 12 years old.
[08:14.95]I've been working ever since.??? So I mean, I've put into just as much if not more than what I'm asking for, you know.
[08:22.24]I understand the backlash, I really do.? But at the same time, this is only temporary.
[08:28.09]But for the moment she¡¯s facing a Catch-22.? The more she earns, the worse off she might be.
[08:34.98]Because if she accepts the small raises she¡¯s been offered at her job, she¡¯d earn too much to qualify for the child care subsidy.
[08:41.51]And if she lost that, she¡¯d have to stay home with her kids¡­meaning she¡¯d have no income at all.
[08:48.04]A system that works against the system's own interests.? It's so counterproductive.
[08:52.97]The Suffolk County Welfare to Work Commission is trying to address this and other issues affecting the working poor.
[08:59.65]It¡¯s pushed for more child care funding ¡­held hearings to call attention to growing poverty¡­ 
[09:04.04]and helped get some public bus lines running on Sundays and later at night.
[09:08.92]Experts say it¡¯s critical for suburbs across the nation to recognize and address the changing face of poverty.
[09:15.88]What we're seeing in terms of the growth in suburban poverty is a real-- pressing policy concern looking forward.
[09:23.81]If we think about the war on poverty, 50 years ago when Lyndon Johnson declared this war,
[09:30.30]if everybody had known what was going to happen what would we have done differently?
[09:34.79]This is our opportunity now for suburbs to answer those questions.