The Issaquah City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to increase its nonprofit grant giving by $50,000 beginning in 2017.

The council set a goal to increase the amount it gives to area nonprofits to $371,500. That figure is the equivalent of $10 per Issaquah resident, plus $30,500 for targeted homeless services.

Councilmember Tola Marts, who leads the Council Services and Safety Committee, said he hoped the additional funding would help combat the “increased suburbanization of poverty.”

Marts cited data from the American Community Survey, operated by the U.S. Census Bureau, which showed across-the-board increases in the rate of poverty from 2012 to 2014. That data showed 6.7 percent of senior citizens were living in poverty in 2014, compared to 5.2 percent in 2012. Meanwhile the poverty rate from increased from 2.3 percent to 4.5 percent for families with minor children and 1.7 percent to 6.2 percent for children younger than 18 years old.

“There are portions of the city that struggle with poverty and the issues around it,” he said.

The increase will cover a two-year period over 2017 and 2018. The City Council has steadily increased its nonprofit grant allocations since the 2011/2012 biennium, when base funding was $222,000.