DuPage County is one of the wealthiest counties in the United States. While statistics can seem overwhelming by their very nature, they nonetheless represent real people. In the case of the information about DuPage County cited below, the numbers are a reminder of those individuals and families who--even in this affluent county--struggle to pay their rent/mortgage and utilities.

• The most recent data from the 2000 U.S. Census showed the county’s median household income to be $67,887(up from $48,876 in the 1990 Census).
• Of the 904,161 people comprising the county’s total population in 2000, 32,163 people were recorded as living below the poverty line (set at that time at $17,050 for a family of four (as per the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).
• In 2003, the number of people living in poverty (set at $18,400 for a family of four) had increased to 54,016, while the median household income decreased to $62,820. (This data was available as of November 2005 through the U.S. Census Bureau on its Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) website.)
• In 2003, the U.S. Census Bureau stated that the median monthly housing costs for the county were: $1,655 ($19,860 annually) for those with a mortgage and $886 ($10,632 annually) for those paying rent.
• For 2006, the minimum wage in the State of Illinois is $6.50 per hour (figure available through the U.S. Department of Labor web site). This means that an individual working 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year, at minimum wage, would earn a total of $12,792 per year.

In 2006, the Northwest DuPage Walk-In Ministry knows first-hand that poverty (now set at $20,000 for a family of four) is increasing and more and more people are faced with the harsh realities of trying to make ends meet. Even working two or more jobs is not enough. Growing numbers of folks are struggling and need NWDWIM’s assistance to pay their rent/mortgage before they and their families are evicted or to pay a bill before one of their utilities is shut off.

Those who are not necessarily living in poverty as defined above can find themselves just one paycheck away from losing their homes and everything else. Unemployment, divorce, illness, hospitalization, lack of health insurance, fire, death of the primary wage earner--any one of these can be too much for a family already living on the edge. Assistance through the Walk-In Ministry’s program can make all the difference in the world.