A REPORT FROM THE FLORIDA HOUSING COALITION
* HUD uses 2007 as a baseline year for most Point-in-Time data. ** 2010 was the first year that HUD had reliable estimates of Veteran homelessness at the state level. (Source: HUD Point-in-Time data, 2007, Florida Department of Children and Families, Point-in-Time Count data, 2020)
Table 2. Point-in Time Counts of Homeless People in Florida and the United States
Table 3. Point in Time Counts, Homelessness by Race/Ethnicity
Low-Wage Jobs Low-wage, low-skill jobs are prevalent in Florida’s economy and have been particularly affected by COVID-19 (discussed in Section 5). According to the United Way of Florida’s 2020 report on Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE) households, the “survival wage” for a household with two adults, one infant, and one preschooler was $34.76 per hour in 2018 (the report uses 2018 data), $17.38 for two parents working full time, or $12.30 per hour for a single adult. The household Survival Wage is just enough for a bare-bones budget with no cushion for emergencies.
Unfortunately, many of Florida’s common occupations do not pay enough for a family to survive, let alone thrive. As the ALICE Report shows, government assistance and private charity are not enough to fill the gap for these families 25. The 2018 median wage for all Florida occupations is $17.23 (up from 2017), with 59% of jobs in Florida paying a median income of less than $20 an hour. This is below the ALICE family survival wage, even with both parents working full time. Table 4 shows the ten most common of these low-paying occupations, which alone account for
Table 4. Florida's Most Common Occupations with a Median Hourly Wage under $17.38 (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics 201826) FLHOUSING.ORG | THE FLORIDA HOUSING COALITION
9
