The Living Income Standard for Counties – North Carolina Justice Center – Let DoNotPay Help You Find Section 8 Rental Assistance Programs

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In many cases, you must meet certain requirements to receive Section 8 housing in Charlotte, NC, and some of those may include: making 50% or less of the national average income; . May 31,  · By government standards, “low-income” earners are men and women whose household income is less than double the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). For a single person Missing: charlotte nc. Low-Income Services. Low-Income Services give you access to health care, child care, housing, financial and nutrition assistance regardless of your financial status. These services can range .
 
 

NC DHHS: Low-Income Services.Out of Reach: | National Low Income Housing Coalition

 

Yet, if current employment and industry trends continue, fewer and fewer jobs in North Carolina will meet this wage standard. Knowing what it truly takes to make ends meet is critical for setting the rules of our economy so that it can operate a at its highest possible levels b for the longest period of time and c include the highest number of people in our state. The measure was based off of the costs of groceries and assumed a typical household spent one-third of its income on food. Since its creation nearly 60 years ago, the FPL has only been adjusted for inflation.

There have been no changes to adjust for the exponential rise in the costs of housing, healthcare, or child care. Additionally, the FPL does not take into account the different costs of living across the nation. Likewise, the minimum wage standard is ineffective at reflecting what it takes to make ends meet because it was never intended to do anything more than represent a basic pay floor.

Rather than reflect the economic or lived realities of workers, the minimum wage standard has been largely governed by a policy process that fails to reflect the best evidence of what a minimum wage standard needs to reach to provide some stabilizing support to the labor market. A more accurate reflection of what it takes to makes ends meet, such as the Living Income Standard, can help policymakers, employers, and workers understand the kinds of jobs that are available in the economy, the gap between what workers earn and what they need to get by, and as a measure of how the economy itself is faring and delivering economic security.

The LIS uses local costs for essential goods and services to establish how much income a family needs to afford those goods and services. Costs are determined for families of various types: a family with one adult and one child, a family with one adult and two children, a family with two adults and two children, and a family with two adults and three children.

Public datasets, such as those available through the U. Census Bureau and the Department of Food and Drug Administration, are used to estimate how much money is required to pay market prices for expenses, including housing, food, child care, health care, transportation, taxes, and other necessities clothing, personal care items, household supplies, school supplies, and telephone service.

The food budget is based on a thrifty food plan developed by the USDA which assumes families cook every meal at home and buy in bulk. The child care costs are set to the family-based care with three-star ratings, not the high-quality standard recognized to deliver the greatest long-term benefit to children and communities. The LIS also assumes that families only incur the most essential of travel expenses.

Transportation costs include only travel to work, school, the doctor, and necessary errands. There is no allotment made for travel for shopping, vacations, or even attending social and recreational activities. A breakdown of the average household budget to make ends meet by budget category shows the greatest costs in the household budget are often the result of work. Childcare represents the largest component of the household budget, with transportation and housing coming in a close second.

Significant to this breakdown are two findings: Health care is a declining share of the household budget in large part due to the ACA, and transportation and housing combined reflects the largest share of a household budget.

While the Living Income Standard provides a more accurate picture of the income families need to make ends meet, income, on its own, is not enough to guarantee families a path to the middle class. Savings are critical in equipping families with the tools they need to weather unexpected hardships such as an illness, loss of job, or even something as routine as car repair. Additionally, savings are critical in providing families with the capital they need in order to pursue middle class investments such as homeownership, entrepreneurship, and education.

A Living Income Standard that seeks to meet the goal of setting aside savings in one year would require households to have incomes much higher than the Living Income Standard. Understanding what families need to avoid asset poverty is critical in determining benchmarks for policies and programs that are designed to ensure economic security for families. A North Carolina that works for all is one that ensures that families not only survive, but thrive.

The Living Income Standard LIS is a market-based approach for estimating how much income a working family with children needs to afford basic expenses. The LIS uses actual cost data to approximate how much money is required for four representative family types to pay seven basic expenses: 1 housing, 2 food, 3 childcare, 4 health care, 5 transportation, 6 other necessities, and 7 taxes.

Raw data for the LIS come from a variety of federal and state sources. For each budget item, the most conservative estimate is used. Food costs, for example, are based on the U. By using conservative estimates, the LIS provides a basic budget for an extremely modest, if not austere, lifestyle. The LIS also generally excludes the value of work supports, such as SNAP formerly known as food stamps or Section 8 housing subsidies, for which a family might be eligible.

Exceptions include an allowance for public health insurance, non-group health insurance subsidies, and certain tax credits. By excluding the value of work supports, the LIS shows how much a family would need to earn to meet its basic needs without any assistance. Below are detailed descriptions of the methods used to craft the LIS. Unless noted, all data are for , and all dollar figures represent values.

Where necessary, dollar amounts from earlier years have been adjusted to their equivalents by using the U. According to the U.

Census Bureau, nearly 1. Owing to the impossibility of creating detailed budgets for every family, the LIS constructs budgets for four representative family types. The following chart summarizes the characteristics of each model family. To reflect regional variations in living costs, the LIS generates budgets for each family type in all North Carolina counties.

The LIS assumes that families rent rather than own their own homes. This is consistent with national research showing that low-income households are more apt to rent their homes. Housing costs are based upon the U. FMR is a survey estimate of the actual market rent for a modest apartment in the conventional marketplace. FMR measures shelter rent and the cost of all tenant-paid utilities except for telephone, cable and internet service. Area FMR values are set at the 40th-percentile rent.

This means that 40 percent of the units in an area rent for less than the FMR, and 60 percent rent for more. HUD guidelines state that parents and children should have separate bedrooms and that two children can share a bedroom.

Therefore, the LIS assumes that two-, three- and four-person families require a two-bedroom apartment, while a five-person family requires a three-bedroom apartment. The Thrifty Plan, which is the basis for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—formerly known as food stamps—allotments, reflects the estimated costs associated with purchasing the food required to prepare a nutritionally sound diet at home.

There is no allowance of any kind for meals purchased outside of the home or eaten at any kind of restaurant. Plan costs are tied to the age and gender of the adults and the age of the children. For infants, the plan costs for a 1-year-old are used. For preschoolers, the plan costs for a 4- to 5-year-old are used. For school-aged children, the plan costs for a 6- to 8-year-old are used. As to not assume the gender of the primary caretaker or exclude same-sex households, the average costs for males and females between the ages of 19 and 50 are used for parents.

The LIS assumes that all adults in a family work full-time, and all children—infants, preschoolers, and school-aged children—require regular, age-appropriate care in licensed family childcare homes that have received a three-star rating from the North Carolina Division of Child Development.

North Carolina rates all licensed childcare providers on a five-star scale. A one-star rating means that a facility meets basic standards.

Additional stars are awarded to facilities that meet higher quality standards in terms of staff education and program standards. Many factors such as transportation and work schedule force families to choose child care options close to where they work and live.

Although a one-star facility may be less expensive, it may not be feasible for a family to choose that care center. The LIS accounts for this by using three-star facilities as the baseline for childcare costs. Health expenses are difficult to measure due to a lack of definitive data and the range of potential coverage options. Families may purchase coverage through an employer-sponsored group plan, obtain non-group insurance through the private market, receive public insurance, or go uninsured.

For North Carolinians obtaining non-group insurance through the private market, they may receive a subsidy based on their individual or family income per the Affordable Care Act. Premium and out-of-pocket costs for each option may vary greatly. The cost of renting or buying a home has skyrocketed, and many can’t keep up. Our city needs an additional 32, units of affordable housing to meet the current need, which means more than 55, Charlotteans don’t currently have an affordable place to live.

That’s three quarters of the Panthers stadium. The City of Charlotte has a Housing Charlotte Framework that focuses on expanding the supply of, and preserving existing, quality affordable housing, and supporting family self-sufficiency.

That being said, the City can’t do this work alone. Government, nonprofits, businesses, and residents must all work together to address this need. Skip main navigation. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. Please enable scripts and reload this page.

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– What is considered low income in charlotte nc

 
This means that 40 percent of the units in an area rent for less than the FMR, and 60 percent rent for more. Page Content 5.

 
 

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