Action Teams
Healthcare
Because of spiraling healthcare costs, employers are providing fewer subsidies for family health insurance benefits, so more and more adults and children are uninsured. The overall costs to society increase dramatically when the uninsured lack access to routine and preventive healthcare. Adults with access to health care and a specific source of ongoing care are more likely to benefit from preventive health care services, early diagnosis of chronic diseases, and appropriate treatment, which results in a reduced incidence of complications and less costly interventions…[more]
Housing
The cost of renting or purchasing an affordable home in good condition presents challenges for low-income Savannah residents. Housing is considered affordable when the mortgage payment does not exceed 30% of gross household income and overall household debt, including the mortgage payment, does not exceed 40%. Affordable houses in basic, livable condition often range in price between $80,000 and $160,000. Approximately 14,400 (56%) of Savannah’s 25,538 renter households cannot afford to purchase an $80,000 house in good conditions with a $600 monthly PITI mortgage payment without paying more than 30% of their income…[more]
Transportation
Transportation alone cannot reduce poverty, but it serves a crucial complementary role; it is a means to an end. Access to transportation reduces absolute poverty mainly by increasing economic efficiency by lowering costs and prices and thus enhancing opportunity…[more ]
Dependent Care
Both the high cost of care for young children or frail elderly dependents and the limited availability of resources constrain an individual’s ability to support a family. Further, the limited availability of supervised after-school care leaves vulnerable children with unstructured time and less opportunity for physical recreation and extracurricular activities. Relative to the population of pre-school aged children, Chatham County has a reasonably good supply of licensed or regulated child care openings. The issues for most low-income parents are affordability and quality…[more]
Workforce
While steady progress has been made in increasing the proportion of the labor force with at least a high school diploma, 21% of Chatham County’s workforce in 2000 had not completed high school. A view of the workforce data by age group provides some useful perspective. The trends have been moving in the right direction; only 13% of the 25-35 age group as compared to 39% of the 65+ workforce are not high school graduates. The delayed achievement rate in the 18-24 year old group, 25% are not high school graduates and only 6.5% have completed a Bachelor’s degree, is a concern. Failure of the new workforce to complete high school or completing it in a timely way by traditional means threatens an expanding economy…[more]
Asset Building
A further complication to the ability to build assets is the large number of low-income residents with limited access to mainstream financial institutions. While difficult to measure, national research indicates 30% of households making less than $25,000 a year have no checking or savings account. They are un-banked. For these people, up to 2% of their annual income is spent on simply cashing checks and purchasing money orders. These individuals are also far more vulnerable to exploitive pay-day lending and refund anticipation loan schemes…[more]
