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Meeting Basic Needs

In Brief

Our communities thrive when all people can meet their basic needs and have opportunities to prosper. Yet every day, in Washington, people with lower incomes sit down to the kitchen table to figure out how they are going to make it to the end of the month – or even just this week. For many, their income falls short of the essentials – food, housing, clothing, health care, child care, transportation.

It is not surprising that they struggle. According to a 2009 article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the number of people in Washington State without health insurance is rapidly approaching 1 million, and shows no signs of declining, even as the economy levels out. Those earning under $20,000 a year are paying up to 17% of what they earn in state and local taxes. Financially staying afloat against odds like these takes more than hard work – it takes support from the community.