An issue of economic stability

For most people, hunger is an income issue. Oregonians are at risk of hunger if they do not have enough income to meet basic needs like food, shelter, heat, medical care, child care and transportation. These costs have risen significantly over the past decade. A minimum, part-time or low-wage job doesn’t provide enough for the basics. Even full-time work is not always enough to ensure that these needs can be met.

Take a virtual poverty tour, hosted by Poverty USA.

According to a study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Oregon’s affordable housing wage is $13.59 an hour. A worker making the current minimum wage of $6.90 would have to work 79 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom unit. The Department of Housing and Urban Development consistently describes affordable housing as rent or mortgage payments that eat up no more than 30 percent of a family’s income.

Federal Poverty Level outdated