Financial Stability

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Duval County 

70,530 persons received Food Stamps in 2007.

Source: Quality of Life Progress Report


4,791 persons received Temporary Aid to Needy Families assistance, also known as welfare.

Source: Quality of Life Progress Report

In the current fiscal year, Family Foundations, a local nonprofit credit counseling agency, has seen a 50 percent increase in the number of inquiries about financial counseling as compared to the previous fiscal year.
 
Context: The recent increase in the cost of gas and food means debt-strapped families are more vulnerable to bankruptcy and foreclosure. The President and CEO of Family Foundations observed on April 4, "We are really seeing a proportionately higher increase in families who make higher incomes having more severe problems." 
 

Source: "Nonprofits Do More With Less," The Business Journal, p. 1. April 4, 2008. www.jacksonville.bizjournals.com

Low-Income Families in the U.S.

Two fact sheets from the National Center for Children in Poverty form a comment on Jacksonville's recent efforts to raise per capita income. The first fact sheet shows that service occupations employ parents. 28 percent of working parents in service occupations are low-income compared to 12 percent living above low-income.  The second fact sheet argues that higher education is one of the most effective ways that parents can raise their families' incomes.

Florida's working families struggle to get by, report says

The actual wages needed to live in Florida's urban areas are much higher than minimum wage. A study on the self-sufficiency standard, which is the income needed to survive without public assistance, found that a single parent of two children living in Orange County requires $39,500 annually or a job paying $18.71 per hour. This is three times Florida's minimum wage of $6.67. The report found that the biggest expense for Florida families with school-aged children was not housing, but childcare. Read the Orlando Sentinel article and the research report from the Human Services Coalition in Miami-Dade.

Low income students in the South's public schools

Today for the first time in more than 40 years, the South is the only region in the nation where low income children constitute a majority of public school students....Beginning in the 2004-2005 school year, for the first time, 10 states showed a majority of low income students in the public schools. Nine of these 10 states were in the South: Mississippi (65 percent), Louisiana (63 percent), Texas (54 percent), Florida (54 percent)...Read more