New census data show recession hit hard in Minn.

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ST. PAUL, Minn. - New census figures show the recession hit hard in Minnesota, with household

incomes and home ownership slipping while poverty climbed, especially among children.

The data show that in the Twin Cities metro area, there was a 4 percent decline in median household income, from $56,767 in 2008 to $55,616 in 2009, adjusted for inflation. Fourteen percent of Minnesota children were living in poverty, 34,000 more than the year before.

The survey didnt specifically count the number of people ``doubling up to share housing, but the data contain several indicators of an at least 10 percent increase in people living in other peoples homes in the Twin Cities, by either necessity or choice.

They include Gerica Franklin, who lives with her sister in Eagan. The six people living in the tiny two-bedroom apartment includes her sisters three children and her 13-year-old son. They formerly shared a St. Paul house.

``I would just say one thing about doubling up,Franklin told the St. Paul Pioneer Press after a night of sleeping on the floor. ``Dont do it.

Yet in the big picture, Minnesota remains among the most prosperous and healthy states in the nation, State Demographer Tom Gillaspy told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis.

The U.S. Census Bureaus American Community Survey 2009 data, released last Tuesday, focused on counties with more than 65,000 people, so the 12 Minnesota counties that show up are mostly in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

The data also showed rises in suburban poverty and joblessness as families whose financial stability crumbled in the recession joined the ranks of the poor.

In Anoka County, for example, the unemployment rate shot up to 6.8 percent in 2009 from 3.3 percent in 2008. Child poverty in Dakota County more than doubled, to 8.2 percent in 2009, while the rate of uninsured residents increased in Washington County from 5 percent in 2008 to 6.7 percent in 2009.

``Now poverty is reaching up and snatching people down into it, Robert Odom, president of Minneapolis-based Love Inc., which mobilizes churches to confront social problems, told the Star Tribune. ``They were pretty secure, living the American dream, and now its been snatched from them.

Minnesotas nation-leading home ownership rate slipped by 1 percentage point to 74 percent, while other states gained or held steady. The drops in home ownership were steepest among black and Hispanic Minnesotans.

The data show Minnesota has slipped seven spots in its child poverty rankings, from fifth best

in the country to 12th. Ramsey County, for instance, saw a 6 percent increase in child poverty, making it by far the metro county with the highest rate of child poverty at 27 percent. In Hennepin County, the child poverty rate is 16 percent.

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