But a report says the number of poor people climbed.  

Tulsa is one of the top 10 metro areas that decreased its concentration of working poor, according to a Brookings Institution report released Tuesday.

The concentrated working poverty rate in Tulsa decreased by nearly 14 percent — or about 3 percentage points — between the tax years 1999 and 2005.

Tulsa ranked eighth in decreased concentration of the 58 metro areas studied, according to the report, titled "Reversal of Fortune: A New Look at Concentrated Poverty in the 2000s."

A high concentration of working poor can affect an area in many ways, said David Blatt, policy director for the Oklahoma Policy Institute.

"Neighborhoods can easily slide into decay," he said. "People who live there face everything from higher insurance rates to higher costs for food, gas and other basic necessities."

The rate is determined by the proportion of residents filing for the Earned Income Tax Credit in a ZIP code in which at least 40 percent of filers earned the credit.

The Earned Income Tax Credit is a refund given to low-income workers who have little or no tax liability. The size of the credit depends on income, marriage status and whether the filer has children.

The total number of Earned Income Tax Credit recipients in the Tulsa area increased during the time period examined, but those filers were spread out in Tulsa and the surrounding communities.

"I think we can say that the value of this kind of report is that it can shine light on not only the number of poor, but where they are living," Blatt said.

The report dispels the myth that the working poor live in only certain areas of Tulsa. They are in all parts of the metro area, he said.

Overall poverty numbers in Oklahoma have increased in the past two years, and that is a troubling trend, regardless of whether they are concentrated, Blatt said.

"What we really want to see is the number of poor decreasing," he said. "What we may be seeing is the poor being shuffled around."

The number of areas with concentrated working poor remained the same, but the number of Earned Income Tax Credit filers in those areas either fell or rose at a slower rate than other areas in the metro area, the report shows.

The rate of concentrated working poverty for Tulsa in 1999 was 13 percent. In 2005 it was 10 percent. The number of ZIP codes with a high concentration of working poverty remained at three, and they are the same areas from 1999 to 2005.

Elizabeth Kneebone, lead author of the reports, said part of the reason for the decreased rate was a decline of overall tax filers in these areas.

The overall trend for Tulsa is positive, but it is important for local organizations to keep watching the issue, Kneebone said.

"We also want to see what's going on in these neighborhoods," she said.

Suburbs across the nation are seeing an increase in overall poverty. But as more working poor people move to the suburbs, metro areas should make sure that all of the social service organizations don't remain concentrated in the inner cities.

Nationally, the rate of concentrated working poverty increased between 1999 and 2005. The number of areas with high rates of working poverty also rose.

These trends were most pronounced in metro areas in the Midwest and Northeast.

The areas with the highest increase in concentrated working poor people were Allentown, Pa., and Detroit, with increases of 18 percentage points and 16 percentage points, respectively.

The greatest drops were Los Angeles, at 9.3 percentage points, and Phoenix, at 4.6 percentage points.

Of the 58 areas researched, 34 showed an increase in concentrated working poverty, and 24 showed a decrease.

Written by Shannon Muchmore, World Staff Writer