Census Data Proves Poverty Exists in Johnson County
When we met together at the Summit in June, we hadn’t yet seen the poverty numbers from the 2009 American Community Survey. The dramatic increase in the county’s poverty rate from 4.4% to 7.1% is more evidence of the recession’s impact on Johnson County. Johnson County added nearly 15,000 people to its poverty count – now at 38,000. When compared to the other metro-area counties, the number of poor increased more than any other county. And, the number in poverty now surpasses Wyandotte County.
At the same time poverty numbers were climbing, the median household income for 2009 in Johnson County fell by $4,400 (from $76,189 in 2008 to $71,766). This drop was the largest of any county in the area. Other troubling data show worker’s earnings dropped and more people were without health care.
The poverty and income data point to significant social service challenges. But these are challenges that cannot be addressed by the social service sector alone. What should we do? The first step is to educate civic and elected leaders, as well the general public, that these challenges exist in Johnson County.
Having been at the UCS Summit, I wasn’t surprised when I saw the Census data. The participants were very clear about the level of need they were seeing and had such a sense of urgency about meeting that need. They also spoke eloquently about how hard it was to get people to see poverty in Johnson County because it was often invisible, scattered around the community rather than clustered in one area, and because it didn’t fit with people’s conception of wealthy Johnson County. The Census data confirm what Johnson County’s social services community already understood to be true: even in Johnson County, there is significant poverty.
Comment by Jennifer Wilding | October 12, 2010 |