Food stamps: Nearly 1 in 4 Federal Way residents seek assistance
Published 10:13 am Monday, December 5, 2011
A sobering report came out from the Seattle Times recently, showing a number of statistics illustrating just how badly Washington state has been affected by the national and global economic downturn.
In some instances, various measurements haven’t been this poor for the state since directly after World War II. In all the measurements used by the study, things have gotten significantly, and quickly, worse for residents of the Evergreen State.
Federal Way made it into the report for food stamp assistance. The city made it into the top 10 of all regional cities for percentage of total population on food stamps, with 21,286 Federal Way residents on the government assistance program. That equates to about 23.8 percent of the total population of the city. Tacoma has 56,277 residents on food stamps, which is 28.4 percent of the total population of the South Sound’s biggest city.
Kent saw 29,414 of its residents on food stamps, accounting for more than one-third of its total population.
The state as a whole has seen almost a half million people added onto the food stamp rolls since 2007, going from 787,577 in 2007, to 1.2 million in 2010.
Federal Way residents also require some help from the government for health care, according to the Times report. The city has comparable numbers of Medicaid recipients as it does to food stamp recipients, with 23,416 residents on Medicaid — which is 26.2 percent of the city’s total population. Kent also had similar numbers for this category, with 32,217 residents on Medicaid, representing 34.9 percent of its population.
A closer look
The first metric used was Percent of Jobs Lost measured by months. The Great Recession beginning in 2008 showed comparable numbers to 1948-50, when the state lost almost 9 percent of its jobs. It also was comparable to what was termed the “Boeing Bust” of 1969-73. According to the report, Washington sits at about minus 5 percent, nearly 44 months after the Great Recession took hold in 2008.
Another sobering statistic shared in the report comes in the form of “percentage of Seattle-area jobs gained or lost between 2008-11, by wage level.” Three wage levels saw losses of 25 percent or more: $25,000-$30,000, $30,000-$40,000 and $40,000-$50,000. In the report, 21.3 percent of jobs making less than $25,000 have been lost in the last three years, while 22.35 percent of jobs that earn between $50,000-$60,000 have been lost since 2008.
One measurement discovered by the Times for this category is that high-earning jobs have suffered the lowest amount of losses, with jobs that make $85,000-$100,000 only losing 3.49 percent, and jobs that make more $100,000 have actually increased by 10.26 percent.
Household incomes have shrunk throughout the region and the state, the report indicates. Looking at household incomes from 2007 and 2011 the state as a whole along with residents of King, Pierce and Snohomish counties have all seen their incomes shrink over the last four years.
In 2007, the average state household income was $58,249. In 2011, that has shrunk to $55,631. King County residents’ average household income in 2007 was $70,418, a figure that has decreased to $66,174 this year. $68,525 was the 2007 number for Snohomish County, now reduced to $63,188. Finally, Pierce County residents averaged a household income of $58,575 in 2007, and now average a household income of $56,510.
Bank-owned home sales in King County have shot up, especially in the outlying regions of the county. According to a graph compiled by the report, 22-32 percent of all home sales in the south end of the county, especially, have been the sale and purchase of foreclosed homes by banks.
Food assistance has jumped throughout the region and the state. The number of school children on free and reduced lunch programs has jumped dramatically in some school districts, with increases of approximately 10 percent or more seen in the Auburn, Fife, Renton, Franklin Pierce and Kent school districts.
