Over 367K households can’t afford necessities

Despite a generally improving economy and a 50 percent drop in unemployment, more than 367,000 Central Florida households remain one paycheck away from financial disaster or in poverty, a rate that has remained almost unchanged since 2014, a new report shows.

The United Way of Florida released the data Wednesday, showing only a small drop statewide in the number of households living below the “bare minimum” level needed for housing, food, transportation and health care. Orange and Seminole counties improved slightly, but in Osceola, the number of residents below the threshold actually increased by 3 percent — further evidence of what most experts say has been an uneven economic recovery.

“I’ve never seen a one-bedroom apartment in Osceola for less than $800 a month,” said Mary Lee Downey, executive director of the Community Hope Center in Kissimmee. “So, sadly, I’m not surprised by these numbers. It’s a story we hear every day — ‘I’m working, but I still can’t make ends meet.’ ”

The report focuses on the large segment of the population it dubs ALICE — assetlimited, income-constrained, employed — people who earn more than the federal poverty level but can’t afford necessities. The minimum needed to subsist, the nonprofit agency has calculated, ranges from $20,736 for a single person to an average of $54,573 for a family of four (two adults with one infant and one preschooler) in Lake, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties.

Though the limits may seem high, United Way officials said the expense of basic household needs has increased steadily in every Flor-

ida county between 2007 and 2015, with an average jump of 19 percent. In the rest of the nation, by contrast, inflation rose 14 percent for that period, the report said.

“For many, a small emergency can quickly become a major financial crisis,” said Theodore Granger, president of the United Way of Florida. “Car repairs and health care emergencies, to name just a few, can plunge these working families over the edge into poverty and financial chaos. When this happens, families, employers and our economy suffer.”

Florida’s United Way joined their counterparts in 14 other states, covering 40 percent of the U.S. population, to provide the statewide ALICE reports.

In the Sunshine State, 29.5 percent of Florida’s working households are constantly juggling to make ends meet, and another 14.5 percent earn less than the federal poverty limit. Combined, 44 percent — or 3.3 million out of 7.5 million households — continue to struggle. In Central Florida, the rates vary.

In Seminole County, 37 percent are struggling or in poverty. In Lake County, the figure is 41 percent; in Orange County, it’s 43 percent, and in Osceola County, 60 percent of the population is ALICE or below. In total, there are 367,892 financially fragile households in the fourcounty area.

“The economy is improving — but not nearly enough and not nearly fast enough,” said Eric Gray, executive director of the Orlando-based nonprofit organization United Against Poverty.

“Nationally, we saw some of the only improvements in the poverty level in recent memory this past year, but Central Florida still has the highest percentage of working poor adults in the country — a problem reinforced by a gigantic percentage of the jobs being in the service sector.”

Two-thirds of all jobs in the state pay less than $20 per hour — a wage that is not enough to afford the United Way’s “survival” budget — and three-quarters of these jobs pay less than $15 per hour. Meanwhile, housing and health care costs have continued to rise.

The problem is particularly acute in Osceola, Gray noted — though Downey said there is reason for hope.

Sometime this spring, the $71 million Florida Advanced Manufacturing Research Center is set to open near Kissimmee, and already, the nonprofit Community Vision is training homeless and under-employed Osceola residents to help fill those jobs. Salaries are projected to start between $40,000 and $60,000 a year. “I just love hearing that,” Downey said. Still, she said, the problem of finding affordable housing persists. “It takes time,” she said. “We have a wide range of income levels all trying to find a place from the same limited inventory. You can’t change that in a day.”

An ALICE report was first released in 2014, offering a sobering look at the damage wrought by the long recession. The updated report uses data from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, among other sources.