31% of Californians are in poverty

Look Around You

• Everywhere you look in California there is an explosion of new 99 cent stores and thrift shops selling used clothes.
• While Californians struggle we see the open borders Democrats and Republicans importing millions and millions of new legal and illegal workers.

LOS ANGELES – (INT) - Almost 1 in 3 California households struggle each month to meet their basic needs, according to a report released Tuesday by United Ways of California. 

The report finds that 3.2 million California households do not earn enough income to account for the types of expenses-food, rent, health care-that are essential to maintain even an adequate level of economic security. 

Not only do these households not have enough money to save for the future or afford "luxuries" like eating out, but they are forced to confront tradeoffs each month about whether to forgo necessities like child care or doctor's appointments in order to make ends meet.

Some of the key findings from the ‘Struggling to Get B’ report: 

One in three California households (31%) do not have sufficient income to meet their basic costs of living. This is three times the proportion officially considered poor in California, according to the Federal Poverty Level. 

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Households led by people of color disproportionately are likely to have inadequate incomes. 51% of Latino households and 40% of African American households have incomes below the Real Cost Measure. This is followed by Asian American households (28%) and white households (20%). 

60 percent of households led by a non-citizen struggle to get by. By contrast, 1 in 4 native-born Americans and 36% of naturalized American citizens are below the Real Cost Measure. 

Just over one-half of households with children under six years of age (51%) fall below the Real Cost Measure. 

Nearly 2 in 3 (64%) households maintained by single mothers have incomes below the Real Cost Measure. In contrast, just one-fourth of married couples with children (25%) are below the Real Cost Measure. 

Two-thirds (68%) of householders with less than a high school education have incomes below the Real Cost Measure. That number falls to 13% for those with at least a Bachelor's degree. 

Struggling households spend over 50% of their income on housing, and families living below the Federal Poverty Level can spend as much as 80% of their income on housing. 

Two full-time, minimum wage jobs are not enough to sustain a family of four. Yet, two-person, two-child households with two full-time, minimum wage earners earn $33,280 in gross income still fall below the Real Cost Measure by $10,000 to $30,000, depending on where they live. 

Struggling to Get By also uses the Elder Index refined by researchers at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development to take an in-depth look at senior-led households. Despite seniors' different needs and work-force participation than younger adults, Struggling to Get By finds that a similar share-almost 1 in 3 (31%) are struggling. 

(Inland News Today)