He rate of poverty among people in the united states has since 2000. been steadily decreasing been steadily increasing remained the same been impossible to measure

The best answer is "been steadily increasing" - since 2000, the financial crisis has taken its tool and more and more people are living in poverty. A big part of the phenomenon are poor neighbourhoods - the number of people living in poor neighbourhoods has increased by around 5 million people since 200.