Poverty in Washington County
What is poverty?
The U.S. Government defines poverty based on the Federal Poverty Guidelines, listed below.(1) The guidelines used today are based on research conducted in the 1960s. The research was intended to measure whether average income was adequate to provide sufficient family nutrition. Federal Poverty Guidelines reflect what is too little for a family to live on, not what is enough. As a result, the guidelines do not include the costs of health care, child support obligations, fines and fees, home or renter insurance premiums, security deposits, transportation and vehicle maintenance costs, life insurance, and other common expenses of daily living. Consequently, conditions of poverty exist in households with incomes higher than Federal Poverty Level.
2008 Federal Poverty Guidelines
| Fam Size | Yearly income |
Monthly income |
Hourly income |
1 |
$10,400 |
$ 867 |
$ 5.00 |
2 |
$14,000 |
$1,167 |
$ 6.73 |
3 |
$17,600 |
$1,467 |
$ 8.46 |
4 |
$21,200 |
$1,767 |
$10.19 |
5 |
$24,800 |
$2,367 |
$11.92 |
6 |
$28,400 |
$2,301 |
$13.65 |
7 |
$32,000 |
$2,667 |
$15.38 |
8 |
$35,600 |
$2,967 |
$17.12 |
| over 8 add per child | $3,600 |
Source: Federal Register, Vol. 73, No. 15, Jan. 23, 2008, pp.3971-3972
What are the conditions of poverty?
People living in conditions of poverty are unable to meet their basic needs for food, shelter, heat, utilities, clothing, transportation, health and child care. Typically, families living at or above Federal Poverty Level are economically insecure. They must choose which basic needs they will fulfill. In Washington County, families must have annual incomes far above poverty level in order to stay ahead of conditions of poverty. This is based on a family paying no more than 30% of annual income for housing (see below).
How expensive is it to live here?
Housing costs in Washington County are among the highest in Oregon.(2) Housing is considered unaffordable if it costs more than one-third of the household's monthly income. A family needs an annual income of $27,720 to afford an average two-bedroom rental unit in Washington County.(3) Renters spend disproportionately more for housing: 47 percent of renters in Washington County spend 30 percent or more of their household income on housing, according to a 2006 census estimate.(4) This housing burden puts them at risk for financial crisis. One ordinary, unexpected expense can be catastrophic.
How many people are living in poverty?
Poverty in Washington County continues to increase. The low-income population in Washington County is increasing six-times faster than the general population. The population of racial minorities in Washington County grew 33% from 99,091 in 2000 to 131,870 in 2005. Racial minority groups constitute 27% of the general population, but racial minority groups comprise 35% of the population living at or below poverty level. Families with a female head-of-household and children under 5 years-old make up the largest group of Oregonians living in poverty, and their numbers are growing - up nearly 5% from 2004 to 2005.(5)
Why are people poor?
There are four types of poverty: people with special needs who have limited or no opportunity for employment because they are severely disabled or elderly; individuals who experience long-term poverty due to generational influences, lack of language fluency, or basic life or work skills; people who experience unexpected or episodic poverty due to job loss, divorce, domestic violence or a short-term disability; and people who experience poverty due to inadequate income that doesn't support their basic needs. This group may be working part-time or working full-time for low wages without benefits.
Does full-time work lift people out of poverty?
Approximately 70% of people living in poverty work for a paycheck; less than 12% receive federal assistance.(6) Low wage jobs, by themselves, do not lift families out of poverty, but they are an important first step. The 2008 minimum wage in Oregon is $7.95/hour, or $16,536 annually. According to 2008 Federal Poverty Guidelines, a family of three (i.e. one adult, two children) would be living below the poverty level if the family's only source of income is a full-time job paying minimum wage. Even a wage as high as $8.45 per hour is still below poverty for a family of 3.(7) Among families receiving Emergency Energy Assistance through Community Action in 2003, 42% were employed, (8) and among homeless families seeking shelter at Community Action, 30% were working.(9)
Can low-income families get help budgeting?
Budgeting is important for all families. Community Action offers assistance to low-income families through several programs. However, even with sound budgeting, government assistance to families is not an economic solution because it does not provide sufficient aid to meet basic needs. For example, the average monthly allotment of food stamps is $74 per month, per person, or about $.82 per meal. The average cost of a meal at home is $1.56, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines.(10)Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), commonly known as “welfare,” provides a family of three with up to $6,036 per year. This is more than $11,500 below Federal Poverty Level. (11)
What is the median income here?
The median family income in Washington County is $59,481.(12) Median means half of the population earns more, the other half of the population earns less.
Are poor people mostly farm workers?
Poverty is increasing in Washington County among all “working poor” families, not only farm workers. (13) Farm workers earn some of the lowest wages in Washington County, typically less than $10,000 annually. Farm workers and their families often live in poor conditions and lack adequate health care. Many jobs created during the past decade are service sector positions with wages inadequate to support a family.
What are the poverty trends here?
Poverty is growing at an alarming rate. Between 1990-2002 the county population grew 51% and poverty grew 119% during the same 12-year period. (14) Poverty among children grew 246% in the same time period. More recent statistics show poverty continuing to increase in Washington County. For more information about current poverty trends in Washington County, please view our 2008 Issues of Poverty document, linked at the top of this page.
Footnotes
1. Federal Poverty Guidelines, U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/08poverty.shtml
2. Out of Reach 2006: America's Housing Wage Climbs, National Low
Income Housing Coalition http://www.nlihc.org/oor/oor2006/
3. Out of Reach 2006
4. U.S. Census – 2007 Washington County Fact Sheet
http://factfinder.census.gov/
5. U.S. Census - 2007 Washington County Fact Sheet
6. Community Action statistics, also
http://www.usccb.org/cchd/povertyusa/povfact3.shtml
7. Federal Poverty Guidelines, U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/07poverty.shtml
8. Community Action statistics
9. Community Action statistics
10. Community Nutrition Institute
http://www.consumer-action.org/csg/service.php?serviceID=svc753
11. Oregon Child Care Division/Community Action Child Care Resource and
Referral data
12. U.S. Census – 2003 Washington County Fact Sheet
13. U.S. Census – 2003 Washington County Fact Sheet
14. U.S. Census – 2003 Washington County Fact Sheet
Other sources:
Oregon Housing and Community Services "Report on Poverty 2004" http://egov.oregon.gov/OHCS/DO_PovertyReport.shtml
2004 Northwest Job Gap Study, Northwest Federation of Community Organizations http://www.nwfco.org/oregon_factsheet.pdf
Oregon Center for Public Policy/Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, State Income Tax Burdens on Low-income Families in 2003 http://www.ocpp.org
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development http://www.huduser.org/datasets/FMR/FMR2005F/index.html
U.S. Census Bureau http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty.html