Poverty in very wealthy Dallas, Texas region

Every year the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas conducts and publishes a very useful and enlightening "Community Needs Assessment" for its four-county service region (Dallas, Collin, Rockwall and Denton). What follows are some important and revealing "tidbits" that I've lifted out of one version of the report.

Consider. . .

• Shortly after 2025, Hispanics will be the majority population group in the region.
  
  
• By 2040 just under 70% of children under 5-years-old will be Hispanic.
  
  
• Basically the same reality will be the case in every other age grouping until the 50-54-year-old group.
  
  
• By 2040 the only majority white age group will be the 65+ crowd.
  
  
• In Dallas County the population grew at less than 5% between 200-2007, while the numbers living in poverty grew by oer 30%.
  
  
• In Collin County (Plano, Texas) the population grew by over 40%, but those living in poverty increased by 100%!
  
  
• For the entire region the population grew by 16% while those living in poverty shot up 41%.
  
  
• In 2007, 1 of 4 families (26%) with children under 18 residing in Dallas County live in poverty--higher than the state average of 1 in 5.
  
  
• In Dallas County, 23.27% of whites, 23.32% of Hispanics, 24.01% of blacks and 10.83% of Asians live in poverty.
  
  
• In 2007, 45% of renters in Dallas County were spending more than 30% of monthly income on housing, the recognized national benchmark of the expected cost of an affordable home.
  
  
• In 2006, the annual household income required to afford a 2-bedroom apartment at fair market rent (FMR) for our region was $31,920--or the income from 3 minimum wage jobs.
  
  
• In Dallas County from 2005-2007, 33.9% of the working families are classified as "lower-income" and 40% lived at or below 200% of poverty.
  
  

The Dallas and Plano and Frisco that most people know is very different compared to the same communities that thousands of our neighbors experience every day.

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