Capitol Alert: 30 percent of Cal households have inadequate incomes

Thirty percent of California's households lack the income to cover "bare bones" living expenses, according to a new statistical study released by United Ways of California, a charitable fundraising consortium.

The study, which relies on Census Bureau data, was conducted by the Center for Women's Welfare at the University of Washington and is entitled "Overlooked and Undercounted 2009." It goes beyond the decades-old federal method of calculating poverty and includes not only the traditional data on housing, food and shelter costs, but costs of transportation, child care and taxes. It does not, however, count money for restaurant food, retirement savings, emergencies or loan payments.

"While the federal poverty level identifies only 10 percent of California residents as poor, this report reveals the extent to which many more Californians are struggling to meet basic needs than most people realize," said Peter Manzo, United Ways of California president. "Because the majority of government and social service programs rely on variations of the federal poverty level, a large and diverse group of California residents are routinely overlooked and undercounted.

"Many of these hidden poor earn too much income to qualify for most social service programs, but they still struggle to meet their most basic needs, especially as the costs of living continue to rise."

The study found wide variations in effective buying power from country to county, both because of income differences and cost of living factors, especially housing. The rural, Northern California counties of Colusa, Glenn, Tehama and Trinity have the highest "income inadequacy rates," as they are termed, of 43 percent and rates are also highest among Latinos (52 percent) and foreign-born residents (46 percent). The inadequacy rate is 77 percent among Latinas, 68 percent among households headed by those without high school diplomas and 64 percent among households headed by single women.

At the other end of the scale, San Francisco has the lowest rate of income inadequacy (18.8 percent), followed by Placer County at 19.7 percent and El Dorado County at 20.1 percent. The rate among white families is 18 percent and 12 percent among families headed by college graduates.

The full study is available here.