No joke as study reveals rising poverty in affluent Beverly Hills.

Down and out in Beverly Hills is for real.

The city of swimming pools and movie stars has a higher poverty rate than middle class enclaves like Lakewood or Torrance -- and twice that of Cerritos, according to U.S. Census data.

A new report from the Institute for the Study of Homelessness and Poverty at the Weingart Center also shows extremely high poverty rates radiating out from the central core of Los Angeles. These zones of poverty are spreading for several miles east along the I-10/I-60 corridor and south along the Alameda-Long Beach Freeway corridor.

But poverty in places like El Monte, Rosemead and Pomona are chronic and well documented. Beverly Hills is another story.

Census data show that 9.1 percent of Beverly Hills households (which could be of any size) falling below the federal poverty line -- a level that came as a surprise to researchers since the same census data show per capita income in Beverly Hills at $65,000, more than twice L.A. County's $29,500 average.

The 9.1 percent rate puts Beverly Hills around the middle of L.A. County's 88 cities, on a par with Carson (9.3 percent) and West Covina (9 percent). It is well above wealthier L.A.-area communities like Rolling Hills Estates (1.7 percent), Hidden Hills (3.5 percent) or San Manno (5 percent).

"It's definitely surprising," said Dowell Myers, professor of urban planning and demography at the University of Southern California. "I took an in-depth look at Beverly Hills after the 1990 Census data came out 10 years ago because I was so surprised then at the percentage of people living in poverty in this very rich city. Arid back then, the household poverty rate was 7.2 percent; now it's even higher."

Shannon McConville, research associate at the Ralph and Goldy Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies at UCLA, pulled up Census data for Beverly Hills last week and found that two of the city's six tracts had household poverty rates exceeding the 2000 national average of 11.8 percent. Those two taacts are located in the southern half of the city, generally south of Wilshire Boulevard and west of Robertson Boulevard.

Even the census tracts on the north side of town, where most of the mansions are, have poverty rates of 5 to 7 percent, higher than other wealthy communities.

Apartment Diving

Among the various explanations cited is the large percentage of residents living in multifamily units, primarily apartments on the south side of town. In the 2000 Census, 57 percent of all housing units in Beverly Hills were "renter-occupied."

"Any time you have a large number of apartments, poverty rates tend to be higher than communities with single-family homes," said Myers, explaining that apartment dwellers often have lower incomes, with large percentages of young adults just starting their earning careers and seniors on fixed incomes.

There are other possible explanations, such as the number of larger families, many of them Orthodox Jews, living in one- or two-bedroom units. Also, many of the mansions on the north side of town have domestic helpers who live on the premises. Their incomes would tend to be lower, since they live rent free.

In determining poverty figures, the federal government defines households as those living in a common residence, whether related or not. The poverty thresholds range from $9,182 for a single person to $18,390 for a household of four to $24,578 for a household of six.

While the 2000 Census data are based on 1999 incomes, near the peak of the economic boom, these figures are regarded as close to current levels. That's because federal figures show poverty rates for all of L.A. County actually fell for the 2000 and 2001 income years, from 17.3 percent in 1999 to 14.5 percent in 2001, the last year for which income figures are available.

Rates are widely expected to head back up again for 2002 when those data come in later this year, as a third year of stock market losses and increasing layoffs takes its toll.

In some ways, Beverly Hills resembles other high-density apartment cities like Santa Monica and West Hollywood, rather than a town of ritzy boutiques and mansions. In Santa Monica, where nearly three-fourths of residents live in multifamily units, the 2000 poverty rate was 10.4 percent; West Hollywood's poverty rate was 11.5 percent.

Typically, cities with high per capita incomes like Beverly Hills don't have to deal much with welfare reform or social safety net-related issues. But Beverly Hills officials say they now know they can't afford to ignore the problem.

Senior planner Michelle McGrath said the city is in the midst of updating its housing plan to account for the new poverty figures. Also, she said, outreach programs for the poor are being stepped up.

But Beverly Hills, like virtually every other community up and down the state, faces a tight budget, which limits the new resources it can devote to serving the poor.

While the Beverly Hills poverty rate may be an uncomfortable statistic for such an image-sensitive city, it still pales next to other areas of L.A. County.

The Weingart Center study found the highest household poverty rates south and east of downtown L.A. These communities include Cudahy (28.3 percent), Compton (28.0 percent), Bell Gardens (27.3 percent) and Huntington Park (25.2 percent).

Among the cities along the 1-1011-60 corridor with high poverty rates: El Monte (26.1 percent), Rosemead (22.8 percent), Pomona (21.6 percent) and South El Monte (19 percent).

"All these communities are predominantly Latino, have high numbers of recent immigrants and have seen losses of manufacturing jobs," said UCLA's McConville.

One sign of this radiating of poverty from the central core is the recent decision by the Downtown Midnight Mission to open up a satellite service center in Huntington Park.

"We saw increasing numbers of people trekking up to our downtown facility from the Huntington Park area, so it made sense to open up there' said Orlando Ward, spokesman for the Midnight Mission.

About one-fourth of those seeking food or other services at the mission come from communities outside downtown L.A., Ward said.

Overall, Ward said, the Midnight Mission has seen a 10 percent jump in the numbers of meals served per day over last year, a sign that poverty levels are on the rise. Because comprehensive data lags a year or two behind such changes on the street, this apparent rise in poverty has yet to show up in official figures.

Nonetheless, service providers and others expect those figures to rise.

"You've got the economic slowdown and now a jobless recovery, the impacts of 9/11, tremendous pressure on the housing front that's forcing people onto the streets and the provisions of welfare reform kicking in:' said Jennifer Wolch, a USC professor. "All of these forces are combining to produce a picture that's not likely to get better in the short run."

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