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 as high as 200% of Federal Poverty Level. Eligibility for some Community Action programs is based on 60% of average Oregon median income.
2009 Federal Poverty Guidelines
| Fam Size | Yearly income |
Monthly income |
Hourly income |
1 |
$10,830 |
$ 903 |
$ 5.64 |
2 |
$14,570 |
$1,214 |
$ 7.59 |
3 |
$18,310 |
$1,526 |
$ 9.54 |
4 |
$22,050 |
$1,838 |
$11.49 |
5 |
$25,790 |
$2,149 |
$13.43 |
6 |
$29,530 |
$2,461 |
$15.38 |
7 |
$33,270 |
$2,773 |
$17.33 |
8 |
$37,010 |
$3,084 |
$19.27 |
| over 8 add per child | $3,740 |
Source: Federal Register, Vol. 74, No. 14, Jan. 23, 2009, pp.4199-4201
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 $30,280 to afford an average two-bedroom rental unit in Washington County.(3) Renters spend disproportionately more for housing: 34 percent of renters in Washington County spend 35 percent or more of their household income on housing, according to a 2007 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 has increased 38 percent since 2000, twice the growth rate of the overall county population. Nearly one-in-ten residents, or 45,023, live below the Federal Poverty Level, and 122,267 Washington County residents are low-income. The county's population of people who are members of racial minority groups had increased from 18 percent to 29 percent of the total county population from 2000 to 2007, but while members of minority groups constitute 27 percent of the county population, they comprise 52 percent of Washington County residents living in poverty. (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?
Low wage jobs, by themselves, do not lift families out of poverty. The 2009 minimum wage in Oregon is $8.40/hour, or $17,472 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. (6) Washington County's cost of living is among the highest in Oregon. A two-parent family with three young children needed $65,868 in annual income to pay for basic needs.(7) Among individuals receiving federal Food Stamp assistance in 2007, 88 percent were employed. (8) 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. Employment that does not provide sufficient compensation to pay for basic costs of living is a problem that budgetting cannot solve.
What is the median income here?
The median family income in Washington County is $61,628.(10) 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. (11) 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 that is likely to accelerate due to current economic conditions. For more information about current poverty trends in Washington County, please view our 2009 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. National Low-Income Housing Coalition, Oregon Out of Reach, 2007-08
http://www.nlihc.org/oor/oor2008/
3. Out of Reach 2008
4. U.S. Census – 2007 Washington County Fact Sheet
http://factfinder.census.gov/
5. U.S. Census - 2007 Washington County Fact Sheet
6. Federal Poverty Guidelines
7. Oregon Housing and Community Services Poverty Report 2008
8. US Census Data, 2007 American Community Survey
9. Community Action statistics
10. U.S. Census – 2003 Washington County Fact Sheet
11. 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
