Needs Assessment - Income Disparity

Many area families live in the shadow of prosperity, eking out a paycheck-to-paycheck life from which it is difficult to escape. Our area has lost many well-paying primary manufacturing jobs, leaving legions of displaced and desperate workers. Without retraining, these workers are unlikely to be able to make a living and are part of the estimated (Compass Report) 20% of area families who are at risk of losing their ability to afford basic housing, food and childcare needs. In fact, once a person falls into the low-wage, survival-job trap, there’s a good chance that they’ll remain there – caught in a back eddy of limited wages and horizons.

Fort Collins' popularity as a place to live has driven the cost of living up, yet wages remain stagnant; in 2006 the Fort Collins Commission on the Status of Women (now known simply as the Women's Commission) found that "a single mother with two children needs to earn $22/hour in Fort Collins to make what is considered a living wage."


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