DeWitt: Report sheds light on why Hernando continues to struggle

Times are still tough in Florida.

They're even tougher in Hernando County.

Those are the findings of a new study commissioned by the United Way of Florida that, as this paper has reported previously, shows a shocking 45 percent of the state's 7.2 million households can barely make ends meet even if the adults in these households are employed.

In Hernando, not unexpectedly, the results are especially grim.

More than half of its households 52 percent are below an income standard established by the authors of the report at Rutgers University-Newark School of Public Affairs and Administration.

Called the ALICE Threshold, it stands for Asset Limited, Income Restrained, Employed and is an estimate, county by county, of the minimum cost of covering such basics as housing, food and transportation.

A family falling below this threshold, obviously, is in trouble. And for more perspective on just how bad things are in Hernando, the rate of ALICE households here is the sixth-highest among Florida counties.

It is higher than our more urban neighbors to the south Pasco, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. It is higher, considerably higher, than our more rural neighbors to the north and east, including Citrus County, which many of us think of as our demographic twin.

It's not.

The cost of living there is lower housing for a typical family is $140 a month cheaper in Citrus, for example and its residents are better paid. Hernando's median household income, $36,515, is about $2,500 less than in Citrus and about $8,500 less than in Florida as a whole.

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DeWitt: Report sheds light on why Hernando continues to struggle