Our children, communities, and state are stronger  when all of Nebraska's families are able to participate fully in the workforce and found financial security. We must ensure that families are able to meet their children's basic needs and save for the future. A robust organisation of supports should help families make ends meet every bit they work toward financial independence. Hardworking families should take a fair share in the success of our state's economic system. When families demand assistance in meeting the basic needs of their children, public benefit programs should work efficiently and effectively to provide a rubber net for temporary challenges. Parents should non have to cull between the job they need and the family they dearest. All families should have the opportunity to invest in their children'southward future and be able to access customs resources that are well-funded past fair tax policies.

Poverty

Nebraska poverty (2009-2019)1

  • Percent of Children in Poverty
  • Percent of Families in Poverty
  • Percent of All Persons in Poverty

34.three%

of children living in single-mother households are in poverty.1

13.vii%
of children living in single-begetter households are in poverty.3

3.8%
of children living in married-couple households are in poverty.3

26.7%
of children living with a grandparent without a parent present are in poverty (2018).4

51,085 Nebraska children were living in poverty in 2019,
21,827 of which were in farthermost poverty (<50% of the Federal Poverty Line).5

one. U.South. Census, 2019 American Community Survey 1-year gauge, Table B17001.
2. U.S. Census, 2019 American Community Survey 1-year estimate, Table B17006.
3. U.S. Census, 2018 American Community Survey five-yr gauge, Tabular array S1001.
four. HH Poverty Guidelines for 2020.
v. U.Southward. Census, 2019 American Community Survey 1-year estimate, Table B17024
6. U.Due south. Census Bureau, 2018 American Customs Survey 5-year Estimates, Table B17001H
7. Nebraska Section of Health and Human Services, Child Care

Making Ends See

Making ends meet

Nebraskans pride themselves on being hard-working people. In 2019, 79.four% of children in our country had all available parents in the workforce.1 Unfortunately, having high labor force participation doesn't always translate into family economic stability.

The chart at right illustrates the gap betwixt low-wage earnings and the amount needed to provide for a two-parent family with 2 children. It assumes that both parents work full-time (forty hours a week), year round (52 weeks per year). That means no vacation, no ill time, just piece of work.

The federal poverty level doesn't draw what it takes for working families to make ends come across. For that we plough to the Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Standard (FESS). The FESS uses average costs, like fair median hire and the average price of a basic carte of food, to calculate what a family needs to earn to meet its basic needs without whatsoever class of individual or public help. It does not include luxuries like dining out or saving for the futurity.

Voices for Children publishes a tool that shows what the FESS is for every county and most family types. Check it out at familybottomline.com

one. U.South. Census, 2019 American Community Survey 1-twelvemonth estimate, Tabular array B23008.
ii. HH Poverty Guidelines for 2020.
three. Voices for Children in Nebraska, Family Lesser Line
4. U.s.a. Department of Labor

5. Fiscal Services, Operations, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
half dozen. Annual Estimates of the Resident Population: July one, 2019, Table PEPSYASEX

Housing & Homelessness

Homelessness

With funds from the Nebraska Homeless Aid Plan (NHAP), agencies served people who were experiencing homelessness or near homelessness. NHAP is funded through the Housing and Urban Development Emergency Solutions Grant Program and the Nebraska Homeless Shelter Help Trust Fund. Not all eligible people receive services with NHAP funding.

In 2019, with NHAP funds, homeless assist providers served::

viii,432

homeless individuals.

ane,597

homeless children ages 18
and nether.

2,536

homeless families with children.

35

unaccompanied homeless children.

2,760

individuals at risk of homelessness.

1,305

children at run a risk of homelessness.

2,130

families with children at risk of homelessness.

1

unaccompanied children at risk of homelessness.

Source: Nebraska Homeless Assistance Programme

In 2016, Nebraska Public Housing had:ii

  • 7,361 public housing units with 7,061 occupied.
  • 12,949 vouchers with 11,609 in apply.
  • 4,789 units were 1 bedroom (non-family).

Housing of Nebraska children:

  • 42,000 children lived in crowded housing.3
  • 42,000 children lived in areas of concentrated poverty.three
  • 109,000 children lived in households with a high housing cost burden.3,4
  • 91,000 children were low-income with a loftier housing price brunt.iii

Homeownership

Homeownership provides a sense of stability for children and communities.

70.3% of families with children owned their home in 2019.1

Homeownership

In 2019, Nebraska Public Housing had:two

12,653 vouchers

seven,181 public housing units

4,658 units were one bedroom (non-family).

38,000 children (8%) lived in crowded housing with more i person/room.iii

24,000 children (5%) lived in areas of concentrated poverty.iii

98,000 children (21%) lived in households with a high housing price burden.3

79,000 children (49%) low-income households had a high housing cost burden.3

i. U.S. Census Agency, 2019 American Community Survey 1-year Estimates, Table B25115.
2. Nebraska Office of Public Housing, HUD.
3. Annie E. Casey Foundation, Kids Count Data Heart.
iv. U.Southward. Census Bureau, 2018 American Customs Survey 5-year Estimates, Table B17001B-I.

Hunger

1 in nine Nebraska households don't know where their next meal is coming from.1

Food insecure households in Nebraska (2009-2019)1

Approximately 84,348 households in Nebraska were food-insecure in 2019, a subtract from 88,350 in 2018. This ways that someone in the household has disrupted their eating patterns or reduced their intake of food because there was non plenty food in the house to eat.

16.7% of Nebraska children experienced food insecurity (2018).2

64.0% of food insecure children are likely eligible for federal diet assistance (2017).2

1. U.Southward. Department of Agriculture, Household Food Security in the United States in 2019.
ii. Feeding America, Map the Repast Gap, Kid Food Insecurity in Nebraska, 2018.

SNAP & WIC

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

The Supplemental Nutrition Help Program (SNAP) is i of the well-nigh effective anti-poverty programs in the U.s.a.. Information technology provides nutrition help to low-income individuals and families through benefits that can be used to purchase food at grocery stores, farmers markets, and other places where groceries are sold.

In Nebraska in 2017, SNAP moved about viii,700 households above the poverty line.

Source: Characteristics of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Households: Fiscal Year 2017, USDA, Food Nutrition Services, The Function of Policy Support, Tables B.12, B.thirteen.

Average number of children enrolled in SNAP (June 2010-2019)

Source: Financial Services, Operations, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children—known as WIC—aims to improve the health of low-income meaning, postpartum, and breastfeeding women, infants, and children up to age five who are at nutritional risk. The programme provides nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, breastfeeding promotion and support, and referrals to health care.

Source: Nebraska WIC Plan.

$63.59

Average monthly toll per participant in 2019.

Source: Financial Services, Operations, Nebraska Department of Wellness and Human Services (DHHS).

Custody

Spousal relationship and divorce

In 2019:

10,665 couples were married and
v,143 were divorced.

4,584 children
experienced their parents divorcing.

1,047 children
were put nether their mother's custody.

157 children
were put under their father'south custody.

1,267 children
were put under both parent'southward custody.

33 children
were given a different arrangement.

Source: Vital Statistics, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

Informal kinship care:

Children are considered to be in informal kinship intendance if they are not living with a parent or foster parent and are non living independently.

xiii,000 (iii.0%)1
children were living in kinship care (2018)

10,861 (2.three%)2
were living with a grandparent who was their primary caregiver in 2019.

1. Annie Due east. Casey Foundation, Kids Count Data Middle.
2. U.Due south. Census Bureau, 2019 American Community Survey 1-year Estimates, Table B10002; U.South. Census Agency, Annual Estimates of the Resident Population: July one, 2019. Table PEPSYASEX.

Kid back up (2019)

Custodial parents who do not receive child support payments they are owed by non-custodial parents may seek assist from the Department of Health and Human Services. Assistance is provided by Child Support Enforcement (CSE).

  • 100,820 cases received CSE assistance, this is 71.vii% of child back up cases in Nebraska.
  • 94,795 were non-ADC cases.*
  •  6,025 were ADC cases.*
  • $216,789,594 Amount of child back up collected through CSE.
  • 16,208 cases received services through CSE, but payments were not being fabricated.
  • 2,402 cases receiving public benefits who are eligible for and are receiving kid support payments.
  • ane,398 cases received public benefits who are eligible for child back up, phentermineonlineguide.net existence paid.
  • iv,006 kid support cases where not-custodial parent is incarcerated.
  • $115.51 hateful monthly child support payment per child.

Source: Nebraska Department of Health and Homo Services, Child and Family Services.
* If the custodial parent is receiving ADC, the state is entitled to collect child support from the non-custodial parent as reimbursement.

Employment & Income

In 2019,

79.4%
of children under eighteen had all bachelor parents in the workforce.

In 2019,

76.2%
of children nether six had all bachelor parents in the workforce

Source: U.Southward. Census, 2019 American Community Survey ane-year estimates, Table B23008

Nebraska unemployment and underemployment charge per unit (2009-2019)

  • Unemployment
  • Underemployment

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Source: U.Due south. Census Bureau, 2016 American Community Survey 1-yr estimates, Table B19126.

7,000 workers in Nebraska earned minimum wage or below in 2018.1

17.1% of Nebraska workers were working in a low-wage job, meaning the median annual pay is below the poverty line for a family of four.2

ane. U.Southward. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers, 2019.
ii. Prosperity Now Scorecard, Financial Assets and Income, 2019.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2018 American Customs Survey 1-yr estimates, Tabular array B19113B-I.

21.five%
of Nebraskans experience nugget poverty.2

Asset poverty:A household is considered to be in asset poverty if they practice not have sufficient net worth at the Federal Poverty Line to subsist without income for three months.

Transportation & Taxes

Family tax credits (2019)

122,262 families claimed $291,705,995 in federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

126,905 families claimed $29,515,537 in land Earned Income Taxation Credit.

227,889 families claimed $561,265,500 in federal Child Taxation Credit.

51,879 families claimed $29,318,393 in federal Child and Dependent Care Credit.

54,185 families claimed $10,301,293 in land Child and Dependent Intendance Credit.

104,080 families claimed $198,171,596 in Additional Child Taxation Credit.

Source: Nebraska Section of Revenue.

Source: Source: ITEP, Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems, Nebraska, 2018.

41,559 (5.4%) households had no vehicle available in 2019.

Source: U.S. Census Agency, 2019 American Community Survey 1-year Estimates, Table B08201.

41,973 (4.ii%) workers used transportation other than a personal car or carpool to go to work in 2018.

Source: U.South. Census Agency, 2019 American Community Survey one-twelvemonth Estimates, Table C08141.