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Poverty Increases In North Florida

This is a photo of a poster from United Way of Florida
Gabrielle Bolden
/
WFSU
This is a photo of a poster from United Way of Florida

The number of North Florida households in poverty is increasing. Those figures mirror a statewide report.

This is a photo of a poster from United Way of Florida
Credit Gabrielle Bolden / WFSU
/
WFSU
This is a photo of a poster from United Way of Florida

The number of Big Bend households classified as ALICE has increased by two percent. ALICE is short for Asset, Limited, Income Constrained, and Employed. The upward trend is not a surprise to United Way of the Big Bend President, Katrina Rolle.

“If you look at the report the trends are continuing upward. The last ALICE report, which was the 2017 report, it was 41 percent. 41 percent of the people were in the ALICE population or within poverty. And now we are at 43 percent,” she says. 

Meanwhile, The Florida Chamber of Commerce’s, Jerry Perish, says Tallahassee zip code, 32304, has the highest rate of impoverished children in the state.

“In 32304 there’s 1,837 kids under 18 living in poverty. That’s a 49.5 percent poverty rate. So, that’s nearly half the kids or right at half the kids living in that zip code.”

18 percent of children are impoverished in Leon County compared to 22 percent of kids in the state.

Copyright 2020 WFSU. To see more, visit WFSU.

Gabrielle Bolden is a fourth year broadcast journalism major attending Florida A&M University from Jacksonville, FL. Bolden is an aspiring multimedia producer. She previously served as a producer for News 20 at Five airing to at least 80,000 households, creating engaging content weekly. She pitched and wrote articles as a staff reporter for The FAMUAN Newspaper. She also produced the 2018 Election Night Special for News 20 at Five, covering state and local election races. Bolden interned for WCTV-Eyewitness News (CBS) producing a multimedia project covering the devastating wildfires in Eastpoint, Florida.