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Poverty in Martin County
For more than two decades, House of
Hope has provided a safety net for struggling people in
Martin County – primarily those who work in service
industries for less-than-survival wages and aging
retirees who struggle to subsist on Social Security
payments of a few hundred dollars a month.
Below are the most recent poverty
statistics available for Martin County (2008, from the
Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation and the U.S.
Census Bureau):
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More than one-third of all jobs
paid $25,000 a year or less.
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20 percent of all households
earned less than $25,000 a year.
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11.3 percent of Martin County
residents – about 15,700 people -- lived at or below
the federal poverty guidelines in 2008. Poverty
levels are defined as $10,830 for one person;
$22,050 for a family of four. (By comparison, in
2007, 8.2 percent of Martin County residents – about
11,400 people -- lived below the poverty level.)
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30 percent of single mothers,
17 percent of children, and 7 percent of senior
citizens over age 65 lived in poverty.
You are a 54-year-old man, raising
your 3-year-old grandson while caring for your elderly
aunt and uncle – both of whom have dementia.
You are coping OK until the day
your workplace goes out of business. You have to wait a
few weeks until you can receive unemployment, but the
rent is due and you are unable to pay.
That was the situation James was in
when he came to House of Hope.
“I was frantic,” he said. “But the
people at House of Hope understood where I was coming
from, and within days my rent was being paid.”
With that crisis past, James said, “I have a solid plan
to take care of my family in the months ahead, but it
was this month I was struggling with. House of Hope
really helped me when I needed it.”
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