The Policy Analysis Center provides the community with a new capability to provide useful information to community based organizations in the areas of health and human services. Its overarching goal is to improve the community’s ability to conduct analysis that addresses the needs of human service organizations throughout the County.
Howard County, Maryland Self Sufficiency Indicators 2011
Released November 16, 2011
In 2008, the Policy Analysis Center issued a report entitled, Measures for Assessing Material Hardship in Howard County to identify the impact of economic conditions on the ability of all Howard County residents to meet the annual cost of living. In 2009, the report’s title was changed to more accurately reflect the information content as well as coordinate with Howard County’s efforts to promote Self-Sufficiency in the community. In response to requests for updated information, the Policy Analysis Center has prepared the fourth annual Self-Sufficiency Indicators Report for 2011.
Making Ends Meet in Howard County
Released: September 21, 2011
The Policy Analysis Center engaged the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies to build on its previous work estimating the costs of achieving self-sufficiency in Howard County, Maryland. The self-sufficiency standard measures how much income is needed for a family of a certain composition in a given place to adequately meet their basic needs – without public or private assistance. Unlike the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), which is based mostly on a food budget and is the same for all areas within the continental United States, the self-sufficiency standard also takes into account costs of housing, childcare, transportation, healthcare and taxes and is specific to a place.
The self-sufficiency standard calculation for Howard County reveals that a household with one adult and two teenagers needs $47,437 to cover basic yearly expenses, yet for the same sized family the FPL is $18,310. For the purposes of this report, we define the “working poor individuals” in Howard County as individuals whose income falls between the FPL and the self-sufficiency standard for one adult in the County ($10,830 – $31,517). “Working poor households” are defined as households earning more than FPL for 2- or 3-person household and less than self-sufficiency wage for the household type.
Access the report, Making Ends Meet in Howard County here.
