By Betsy Brewer Brantner
Contributing Writer

Since November 1, 1971, the Neighborhood Services Center (NSC) has provided a centralized location where residents of the southwestern corner of Chester County can access health and social services and find help to meet their basic needs. The Neighborhood Services Center’s staff works to empower all people to achieve health, wholeness, and stability in their lives.

Aaron Karpas, the director of NSC, said, “The need is greater than ever” for families in the area who are struggling to meet their basic needs.

The majority of NSC’s funding is based on grants and contributions from foundations on the local level. Much support also comes from residents in the community. That local support is vital to NSC, and what NSC then provides to those in need is vital, too.

“People would be surprised to see who walks through our door,” Karpas said. “It could be your next door neighbor who had a major health incident and now finds they can no longer work. It could be a mother or father whose marriage has ended, leaving the parents struggling to feed their children because they now have two houses to maintain.”

And now, with the way the cost of rent is tripling, many people find themselves not fitting the formula established by landlords and rental agents to get into a property. NSC gave financial rental assistance to 204 households in 2024.

Where once a perspective renter was required to have the first and last month’s rent, now they are being asked for three months of rent, and they have to make an hourly wage that shows they can bring home in one week a month’s rent.

If you are trying to get into a one-bedroom apartment in Oxford, rents can go as high as $2,000 a month. You would be required to have $6,000 just to move in.

If you are looking for a rental property in the Oxford area, the rents range from $1600 to $2,000 per month. So, your weekly gross salary should be $1600 to 2,000, which would require an hourly wage of $40 to $50 if you work a 40-hour week.

What is the likelihood of being able to afford rent, when the minimum wage is $7.25 an hour in Pennsylvania, which would give you $290 a week?

It’s not uncommon to hear people discussing the fact that McDonalds pays $15 an hour to “flip burgers.” But a simple conversation at the drive-thru will show that this is not the typical wage. Nor do most McDonald’s workers work a 40-hour week. However, if they did, that would still give them a gross salary of $600 a week—far less than what would be expected in order to rent a place.

If you thought rent was bad, let’s talk utilities. If you’re heating with electric or natural gas, one month’s bill can run from $400 to $600. If you pay for water, sewer, and trash, that can increase the costs by another $300 or more.

Another interesting fact that is often overlooked is that if you have children and your child is a student they “may”or may not get a laptop, but what about the cost of the wi-fi connection for that laptop? Believe it or not, many people can’t afford that cost either, but families must have a wi-fi or internet connection just so their children can complete homework assignments.

Last year, NSC helped 539 unduplicated households at the food pantry, and we know the cost of groceries is not expected to decrease any time soon.

And as Karpas said, “There is very little transportation services here, so you also have to figure in the cost of a car and the gas and maintenance for that.”

Consider also the cost of child care, which has hit an all-time high. The cost of daycare for two children under 5 at a good childcare facility can cost as much as $30,000 a year, which means if you do get paid $15 an hour at McDonald’s, all but $1,000 of that salary would go to childcare.

To say that NSC is vital to the community is quite the understatement. It is an important life-line for many in the community.

Karpas said, “Affordable housing can mean different things to different people. Helping with rent out-paced help for those with mortgages. People can’t even afford a starter home anymore. If you’re renting, you are often not able to save for a home. Most houses now cost up to $500,000.”

He continued, “It is a big problem just keeping up with inflation on groceries, utilities and housing. Now you definitely need two incomes. We can’t forget how much others are struggling and all it takes is one health crisis or job loss for your whole world to change.”

NSC is the lifeline for everyone in this community. It is not a hand-out; it is a hand up. If you would like more information on NSC, or would like to make a donation, call 610-932-8557.