The Importance of an Income Focus

By Meg Harsh
Immediate Past President of the United Way Board of Directors

As an active volunteer within the community, I am constantly amazed at the generosity of the citizens of Washington County, and the great work provided by so many local agencies. In my time with the United Way, I have had the opportunity to work more closely with two very dynamic partners – R.E.A.C.H and The Washington County Community Action Council.

While both organizations are most commonly known for providing emergency services and crisis intervention, both groups work tirelessly to promote self sufficiency within the customers they serve. They partner with each other and across the community to offer emergency shelter, transitional housing for those who have lost their residence, and affordable housing alternatives.

When you think about the breadth of these issues and services, you might question what affordable housing really means. Given the recent publicity about the drop in real estate, one might think that housing is cheaper so it has to be more affordable. However in Washington County our median income levels barely put fair market housing in reach to the average citizen.

According to HUD, housing costs including utilities and insurance should represent no more that 30% of our monthly income. If you own your home, maintenance and taxes should also be considered in this figure. The median income in Washington County is $53,600. At 30% of their monthly salary, a family can afford $1339 in housing costs. Fair market rent for a three bedroom establishment is $1200 in Washington County. This means that almost 50% of the families in Washington County cannot afford rent and utilities. Similar research indicates that to maintain $1200 a month on housing expenses, families would not able to afford a home that costs more $189,000 (assumes 30 year mortgage at 6.25%)

This issue is further compounded by a shortage of jobs that pay at median income levels. Washington County is largely comprised of retail, service, hospitality, and warehousing opportunities. The Maryland Department of Labor forecasts the majority of growth to occur in these sectors more so than in higher paying occupational areas. Families will be challenge for both parents to work or for a single parent to work more than one job; further deteriorating quality of family life.

The inability to afford shelter creates a snowball effect in other areas of a family’s financial stability. As more money is spent on rent or mortgage, less money is available for other basic needs including health care, food, and transportation. Issues in any of these areas contribute to missed work days. Missed work days contribute to a person’s ability to maintain gainful employment, which in turn calls into question the ability to afford shelter. Maybe a better metaphor is a spider web versus a snowball.

No easy answer to this problem exists. I firmly believe that we need to continue to support the agencies previously mentioned, as well as those groups helping our citizens to locate and maintain employment in Washington County. We need to bring new programs into the county like Housing First as outlined in the strategic community impact plan. We should be partnering with local developers to offer tax incentives for building affordable housing within new neighborhoods.

Lastly we need to support our educators and our youth in not only improving high school graduation rates, but also in obtaining advanced degrees and certifications to qualify for higher paying jobs. As the level of education increases, we will be able to better partner with our local economic development groups to not only recruit more business to Washington County but to shift the occupational landscape from a largely service, retail, and warehousing community to one with more highly skilled positions.

As our education improves, so will our income. As our income improves, so will our job opportunities. As we achieve greater financial stability we remove the barrier of affordable housing. Once our home is stable we can truly then focus on the components contributing to a higher quality of life.