Lower-income families in Montgomery County have seen little progress in the last 10 years on the measures that matter most, according to a new report detailed by Mainline Media News.

Advocacy group Children First’s 46-page report, titled “A Decade of Stalled Progress,” gives a 10-year overview of socioeconomic factors including poverty, wage growth, childcare costs, and public school funding.

An excerpt:

A third of children are living in families that can’t afford to meet their needs without going into debt or going without essentials. These children mostly live in communities where the schools have insufficient funds to ensure the success of their students. In addition, the resources to meet the health care, early learning, and family supports are far short of what is needed to help at least 35,300 children in Montgomery County achieve their full potential. These children are concentrated in a handful of communities that require a renewed effort to give every child in the county the great childhoods they deserve.

The United Way’s ALICE (Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed) formula, which measures the minimum income needed to make ends meet, found that a Montgomery County family of four needs to earn a little over $88,000 to meet that threshold.

“Most Montgomery County families have adequate resources,” said Donna Cooper, executive director of Children First. “35,000 kids are in families that are financially struggling and still need a helping hand, and those in the bottom 20 percent are losing ground when you take account of inflation.”

The number of children relying on federal SNAP benefits has increased 13 percent since 2014, and the number of homeless children nearly doubled, according to the report.

“Although most working adults in Montgomery County earned more over the decade, typically any financial boost was wiped out by the rapidly increased costs for basic goods and services,” the report said. “After accounting for inflation, the poorest 20 percent of county residents experienced negative net income growth in the last decade, losing $1,609 of their annual purchasing power although their incomes rose by 20 percent in that period.”

The top 20 percent saw their purchasing power grow by $34,395 in the same period, the report said.

The full report is below:

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