Ward, June, Wally and Beaver Cleaver had little reason to venture into the dangerous big city because everything they needed was in their heavenly suburb. Even in the skanky world of Desperate Housewives, the suburbs seem shiny, bright, secure and prosperous. For decades, suburbs were the place city dwellers fled to once they were rich enough to leave the crowded, crime-prone city. But according to a Brookings Institution research report, almost one third of all of America’s poor now live in the suburbs. Large U.S. suburbs house 1.5 million poor people, according to Metropolitan Policy Program senior research analyst Elizabeth Kneebone, who wrote the report.

The suburbs with the most poor are located near cities where the real estate bubble was fattest and recession hit hard—Florida, California, Arizona. Kneebone believes rates of suburban homelessness might be ameliorated and some suburban foreclosures might be prevented if suburbs had more support services for the impoverished: public food pantries, free walk-in health clinics, cheap public transportation. Her suggestions seem especially timely given yesterday’s forecast that America is on track to hit 1 million foreclosures by the end of the year.