© 2026 Blue Ridge Public Radio
Blue Ridge Mountains banner background
Your source for information and inspiration in Western North Carolina.
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Notice - Brevard 101.5 BPR News, and 90.5 BPR Classic - Intermittent power issues - Notice

Fast Growing Poverty in North Carolina

WUNC News | By Anita Rao,
Frank Stasio
Published August 19, 2014 at 10:07 AM EDT
Poverty is growing rapidly in the South, and four NC cities are at the top of the list.
Poverty is growing rapidly in the South, and four NC cities are at the top of the list.
Poverty is growing rapidly in the South, and four NC cities are at the top of the list.
Poverty is growing rapidly in the South, and four NC cities are at the top of the list.

Experts discuss growing poverty in the South

    

A new report from the Brookings Institution ranks four North Carolina cities among the top 15 in the country where poverty is soaring fastest: Raleigh, Charlotte, Winston-Salem and Greensboro-High Point. 

The recession pushed many North Carolina residents into deeper poverty and hit suburban areas in the state particularly hard. What does an increasing poverty rate mean for the state and how are people on the ground working to respond to the changing face of poverty? 

Host Frank Stasio talks with Tracey Dorsett, program officer at the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and Michelle Kennedy, executive director of the Interactive Resource Center, a non profit organization that assists homeless individuals.

Copyright 2014 North Carolina Public Radio
Anita Rao
Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.
See stories by Anita Rao
Frank Stasio
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
See stories by Frank Stasio