Report highlights the poor in wealthy Fairfax Co.

Fairfax County (Map, News) - Tens of thousands in Fairfax County live below the poverty level, can’t pay for health insurance or sit on waiting lists for public housing, according to a compilation of data on low-income residents unveiled this week by the Fairfax County Community Action Advisory Board.

While much of the data is not new, the report highlights a substantial population of residents who live outside the economic success story that has defined Fairfax County, which has the second-highest median household income in the nation at $94,610.

And the disparity in income between the wealthiest and poorest households is widening, according to the report. John Ruthinoski, an analyst in the county’s Department of Family Services who worked on the report, calls it “a starting point to remind policymakers we have poor people here in Fairfax County.”

“Now we have a resource [with which] we can quantify what we’re talking about,” he said.

The document uses a “self-sufficiency standard” established by the District-based Wider Opportunities for Women to determine the income level a family needs to support itself without government assistance. In Fairfax County in 2006, for a family of two adults, one preschooler and one school-aged child, that income is $62,918.

That number ranks Fairfax County as the most expensive in the region, said Camille Cormier, WOW’s director of local programs and policy. In Arlington County, that income level is $59,984.

An estimated 115,000 residents in Fairfax, or 11.3 percent of its population, lived below the 2005 self-sufficiency standard, according to the report.

The report also shows a growing demand for county assistance in recent years. Since 2001, the demand for Department of Family Services programs grew 70 percent.

Most of that increase has been for highly sought-after Medicaid and food stamp programs managed by the county. The caseload for both grew by thousands of residents in that period, said Juani Diaz, director of the department’s self-sufficiency division. She cites increasing population and policy changes on the state and federal level that qualified more people for assistance.

The division’s staff, she said, has not shown similar growth in number.

“We always do our best to maximize efficiency without compromising customer service,” she said. “Sometimes I wonder how much longer we’re going to be able to do this without impacting the quality of service. It’s a fine balance to maintain.”

wflook@dcexaminer.com

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