Middle Class Shrinking in North Fulton
As the North Fulton Poverty Task Force, our team of nonprofit providers and community leaders set out in 2014 to learn why requests for services were increasing, even as the economy had improved dramatically. The results come with a little disclaimer. The story that unfolded isn’t all about poverty. It’s not telling you about needy people and asking for compassion or donations. It’s a reality check. It’s a profile of our community with implications beyond compassion.
The goal was to be able to show what’s really happening - to quantify in real numbers what we’ve been seeing anecdotally. There is a lot of data out there. Unfortunately, most of it isn’t set up to show what’s happening in the suburbs – in our suburbs. Fulton County numbers don’t always track with what we see just in North Fulton. Zip code averages can be misleading too. But over time we’ve been able to pull out some numbers to start to paint the picture.
Source: Brookings Institution analysis of decennial census and American Community Survey data
So, what does the data say? It’s not just us. Nationwide, poverty in the suburbs is growing. Atlanta is a leader in this phenomenon.
The 2000s were the “tipping point”. For the first time, suburbs (the dark blue line) have more poor residents than cities. In 2015, 16 million poor people lived in the suburbs, outnumbering the poor population in cities by more than 3 million, small metro areas by more than 6 million, and rural areas by more than 8 million.
Source: Atlanta Regional Commission
Looking at NF’s 59 neighborhoods (census tracts) from 2000 to 2017, 44 experienced growth in poverty. 4 had double digit growth – the highest of which was 30%. Why is this happening? The economy is better, more people are working. So why are so many people financially vulnerable or truly in poverty? The combination of rising housing costs, stagnant wages, and in North Fulton, the net loss of more affordable housing, are all part of this complex issue.
What does it cost to live in North Fulton? In 2004, MIT starting tracking a Living Wage for every county in the US. Their data concludes that a family of 4 with two working adults and 2 children must earn almost $65,000 a year to live in Fulton County. Not North Fulton. That means each wage earner needs to make $15.59 per hour. This budget allows
$24 a day for food, $160 a week for child care for both children, $1031 per month for housing. ‘Other’- that $500 a month budget- includes items such as clothing, personal care items, housekeeping supplies. Note there is nothing in here for savings, nothing for student debt.
Think about this same family where both parents are making minimum wage – about $30,000 total. How would you go about cutting expenses? And none of that is technically considered poverty.
Remember, this is an average for all of Fulton County. Our research shows that in North Fulton, this budget doesn’t hold water. Housing for $1000/mo is virtually nonexistent in North Fulton, where the average 2-bedroom rent is almost $700 a month higher than this budget. Adjusting for North Fulton costs, our estimates are that this same family would need to be in the $80,000-$90,000 a year range. And this is pretty basic no-frills living. No room for savings, no room for illness.
We’ve all heard the term ‘vanishing middle class’. Here’s what it looks like. What used to be considered middle income is now barely enough to live. For the Task Force, it became clear that Poverty isn’t a title that covers what we’re seeing – we are a Task Force focused on the growing Financial Vulnerability phenomenon.
How many of those do we have in North Fulton? Just over 1 in 3 households earn under $75,000.
Where does that leave our essential workforce? Those who make far less than $80 or $90k? They don’t qualify as being in poverty, but they don’t make enough to live in North Fulton without some serious tradeoffs. Healthcare support jobs pay an average of $34,500 in North Fulton. Personal care and service jobs average $29,300. Office and administrative support average $41,300. This has traditionally been considered more middle class/working class, but now it doesn’t cover living expenses. Example - We found one of our middle school teachers living in his car in the parking lot.
And what about true ‘poverty’? Minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. That’s just over $30,000 for this family of 4. That doesn’t qualify as poverty for most assistance. The federal government income level that qualifies as poverty is $24,250 for a family of 4. $2,021 a month. Think about how far that goes.
It probably won’t surprise you that since 2000, the total student population has grown about 38% in North Fulton. But it might surprise you to learn the students who qualify at or near the poverty line at school has grown over that same period 226%. Yes, we’ve added kids, but the families already here are losing ground. That’s more than 13,000 children right here in North Fulton who are considered ‘food insecure’.
You may have heard one of the many local stories. The child who shares a bedroom with his mother and 2 siblings. The meal program at school is often the only food they have in a day. They are left to take turns with who gets dinner each night.
So how does this impact us? First, of course, we are a community with heart, and there are too many heartbreaking stories here.
But as a practical matter, how does financial vulnerability in our area impact the rest of us?
Traffic – For instance, most of Roswell’s workforce doesn’t live here. They are on the roads, creating congestion and delays that no one wants.
Health and safety - Why do nurses, police, teachers, chefs and other essential workers need to drive or make their way to North Fulton? Many will pass several other places they could work on their way here from their homes.
Economics – businesses are reporting difficulty finding qualified workers, and even more difficulty retaining them. This leads to stressed business as well as higher costs that are passed on to all. We’ve already seen businesses move to Georgia to locate in North Fulton, only to move to other areas to improve worker retention.
Cost – in money and time. Higher costs to keep governments staffed, higher medical costs to retain staff and cover those who can’t afford their own care, higher retail and restaurant prices to entice workers to keep things running. Lack of workers can take all our time – what happens if your car repair takes a couple of weeks instead of a couple of days?
Missed opportunities – there are a lot of these. For instance, we’ve gone to a lot of trouble to grow and educate some pretty great kids. Ideally, some of them come back if they can afford to live here. One of our local kids is now a student at Stanford. She interned at home this summer. She has been helping polish the Task Force report. In doing her research, she said, “I want to learn more. This is a huge issue. The lack of affordable housing alone is slowly grinding the economy to a halt.”
This has been a very cursory view of a number of very complex issues for the sake of time. We could talk for days. We have talked for days.
The point we hope you take away is that our community, as are those all over the country, is changing in ways that are subtle and quiet and could be a tidal wave if we don’t pay attention. Lots of cities are noticing, and some work is being done to find solutions. There are no bumper sticker answers. We can’t write a check and solve it. Until now there hasn’t been a lobbying group.
These challenges are treatable. But we can do better. So here’s the vision: North Fulton is a community where all individuals and families, including the financially vulnerable, have the opportunity to be thriving and contributing citizens.
We are calling on all of us as a community to educate ourselves and work together to find some answers – small and large, short and long term. This fall, you will be hearing more about this effort as we move toward the first Community Summit in November. We’re inviting business leaders as well as faith and civic leaders to spend half a day learning more about what’s happening here, and hearing from experts in this arena.
We’ll have a nationally recognized poverty expert with first-hand experience. A discussion panel also includes Frank Fernandez from the Arthur Blank Foundation and Egbert Perry from The Integral Group. If you would like to be involved, contact us at info@improvenorthfulton.org.