Poverty Among San Diego Seniors Increases

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The American survey shows that there is been no change in San Diego's poverty rate despite job growth and declining unemployment rate. And the 2014 census data also reveals that a growing number of San Diego seniors live at or below the poverty line. Joining me to discuss the new information is Dr. Peter Brownell, which analyze the numbers from the US Census Bureau. And Peter will come back. Also joining us is Brent Wakefield, is vice president of development for Serving Seniors. Friends welcome to the show. Now Peter, what is the federal poverty line. The federal poverty line means that what number is derived by the federal government for the whole country. It has a long history going back before World War II, I was originally designed based on the budget of food items, that a family needs and under the assumption that it would be a third of the household budget. Obviously, that is something that is changed over time, as housing becomes more and more expensive caught --. It is $1200 for an individual, why is it so low. It is a federal number, it is the same number four Mississippi, or of Ohio, or Kentucky. Which do not have the high cost of living for like San Diego does. That is the biggest thing. It is a measure of a level of deprivation, it is not meant to be a sustainable budget that a family could live on over a large periods time. I do not remember, it is updated every year. The number that I'm reporting is from 2014. Because the census just related -- just released that data. The original was derived before World War II , and has been updated as the budget is updated. It is based on the share the budget that is intended for food. Right. With the federal poverty line in mind. How does the number in 2014 compared to previous years. We are still significantly above where we were before the recession. We have inched up because the population has grown the share, in another rate is essentially constant from last year. So just the population growth, we have added 11,000, I'm sorry we of added over 3000 people. We have over 200 and 212,000 folks and we were at [Indiscernible] before he began. There is still tens of thousands of people in poverty, that we did not have living in that kind of deprivation prior to the recession. Right. There is another standard that the Census Bureau uses, economic hardship measure. That is calculated in a slightly different way What were reports for economic hardship, is to do percent of economic threshold. The consensus The census reports that every year. We also make a report based on the self-sufficiency standard, we have not updated after 2014, but the economic hardship number is that the poverty level, is for every type of family group. I think it is possibly the single folks, it is even higher then the hardship. Right, the idea is that the government itself through the Census Bureau makes an understanding that they go 200% over the federal poverty numbers, because in many areas of the country those numbers are simply not realistic. They absolutely it knowledge that in high-cost areas the poverty level is not an adequate budget. Have this conversation has a lot of numbers in it. It's kind of hard to care about numbers. So, poverty data is really about people. People in San Diego. So give us an idea about who is most affected by poverty here. I think the folks that are most affected our children, and families with children. Part of that is simply because the poverty level is adjusted to family size. As you can imagine both in terms of budget and the actual needs of household and has children, you need more to support your children. It is much harder, you can have an individual earning the same amount, and be fine on your own, but they would be in poverty they were supporting children. That said, the rate is much higher for children, it is over 20% of children in San Diego are in poverty. We really have concerns for what that means for the future. Obviously, the future adults are these children, the future leaders of our city, and poverty has terrible impacts on kids educational attainment, their health, they can stay with them throughout their lives. Once statistic the weirs particularly interested in -- one statistic that we are particularly interested in is how many are actually working. This isn't just people who are not working, or not willing to work, 41% of people below the poverty line in San Diego are in fact working. And so, one of the things that as you mentioned, we've had job growth, it is the nothing really, which was quite surprising to us given how much in employment rate has dropped, it hasn't dropped the poverty rate more. What we think is going on here, is that there has been a growth of low-wage jobs, a part-time jobs, but we've lost a lot of full-time jobs during the recession, we succeeded in creating 30,000 jobs but a lot of those jobs are very low-wage, and/or part-time jobs that do not offer the full hours the people need and want. That makes it difficult for people to support their families. Even if they are working they cannot climb out of poverty. Absolutely. At the state level, most 6% of people who are working you are counting in our employment rates, are working part-time for those jobs are not available to them. The legal to Brent, that talks about this report that shows a significant spike in seniors in San Diego. From eight to more than 11%. What might be the reason for that. One of the reason that we think is, due to housing costs. 95% of the seniors that we serve as senior citizens centers, are below the poverty levels. That is a huge number. When they come in, 65% of them identify housing as a number one concern often before food. They often come for food copper when asked them whether issues are, housing is the biggest issue. The average income is about 50 per month and their spending $700 for their single occupancy. A bedroom down the hall. If you see how they are living. So they are having hundred and $50 for their food and medication. They are choosing between medication and food and rent and food as well. We try to provide the food for them, so they can address other issues. The housing really takes a wallop out of their budget. If they have family to support them, it's really likely that that will be what does it them in. It is one incident away from illness. If they cannot make one months rent their out of the street. You mentioned the federal poverty line, you rely on a calculation also, that is created by the UCLA which is the elder index to determine how much seniors need to get by. How much is that. We looked at every county in California, the numbers a very similar to the second statistic, it is a little over $24,000 a year is what a senior in California needs. They looked at that just to get by number. Including healthcare, food and transportation. Just to get by would be a little over 24,000 year. And that means, in San Diego 41% of our seniors are below that elder index number. So that's 141 elder index number. So that's 141,000 seniors in San Diego County. How much is the Social Security payment, $150, -- $850 We know that women are most affected by poverty, and the Latino African-American community as well. But really one of the most affected groups sad to say, our grandparents that are raising their grandchildren. They are often some of the poorest as well. These are sad numbers, because that means there is someone else that is dependent on them in their golden years are being used taking care of children. These are areas that we need to address. These are problems, that five serving seniors couldn't address. Lots of people try to prepare for their senior years, how do seniors tend to fall into poverty. I think is just being a paycheck away from homelessness for some of them. A lot of these seniors, they did everything right. They worked, maybe they weren't the best financial planners in the world, but 95% of us are not good financial planners. But they even saved money. Maybe they had 100,000 or $200,000 in the bank. Maybe their house burned down, their spouse got sick, and this is the time it when their families to be there for them. They did not have family, they fall very quickly into poverty. The kind of lose their sense of independence, is a precarious situation. And in going out and having to start with just the money that they are getting from federal dollars to make it. Unfortunately it is not enough. What are San Diego city leaders doing to help to The county is administering the federal dollars. There overseen the nutrition program that we are a part of. We provide 50% of the total ad service to seniors. But frankly not enough. People are not doing enough, if you think about these numbers, it is absolutely staggering. Hundred and 40,000s -- hundred and 40,000 seniors in San Diego. We call them the hidden hungry. That is the campaign way to start a, because people do not realize that they are hungry, they are eating once or twice a day and are tens of thousands in that same condition. We need to draw attention to that. The campaign that we have issues one of the ways that we can focus on nutrition, but there many other things that need to be done. Luckily, organization such as ours, and other organizations such as elder health, in San Diego, we are trying to keep people at home as long as possible. Do what we can. We of wraparound services, social workers Conders is, case managers, help them with their entitlements caught the basics that they need to do to get situated. Or help them navigate the complicated healthcare system. It becomes more more complex each day. They're very important aspects to keeping them healthy. The county, knows all of this and they're trying to intervene as well. The county obviously is a big ship, and they do not steer quite as quickly as a speedboat in the water. We are waiting for them to catch up. We had huge support, they know that are nutrition program is imperative. You are expecting this product -- problem to increase as the baby boom generation moves into more and more of them into the senior years. That is correct. That is the Silverstein only that we are expecting. We would like to picture someone on the top of this in Nami on as surfboard. We are getting a wiped out we are not prepared speaking --. The County and the city need to come together to address this issue, we're going to see homeless seniors sleeping on the street. And many of them are veterans as well, and that is a shame. Now Peter, back to the overall numbers the have been analyzing. When you look at these numbers, and you are going through them for families, and four children, what are some of the other things that stick out to you. Perhaps for San Diego is surprising. Something that is surprising that is happening in San Diego. Something that is surprising. I guess the cost of housing is not so surprising. But it is significant. I do think that resonates with everyone in San Diego that this is a situation. Overall, including both renters and folks who own their homes, 40 4.6 percent pay more than 30% of their income to housing costs. It is at a level that is defined by housing redevelopment as unaffordable. That would be look at renters, is over 50% of folks who are paying over 30% of their income. You look at the poverty level, based on the assumption that they have over 30% of their income available for food, the reality is that that is not happening. When you are spending 55% on housing each year. To go back to the overall numbers, when you are looking at these and analyzing these, you found that the federal numbers as opposed to the economic hardship level numbers, when it comes to the federal numbers, I know that you are a big advocate of raising the minimum wage to reduce poverty. But working minimum-wage in California already puts them above the poverty line. The poverty line is not just one number, it is calculated based on household size. It is true if you are a single adult with no children, you are earning the state minimum wage of nine dollars an hour full-time you are making almost $19,000 a year. But again, if you are raising two children, on that income, in the picture below the federal poverty level. Even though the federal poverty level does not take into account key here graphic -- geographic differences, it does take an account children. This does show that income needs to be a sustainable level. That really is the difference there, when we talk about a minimum wage that is livable, we're talking about raising children that are the future of our city, I think we need to be willing to pay people, not just enough for an individual to get by but if we want a future comedies pay enough for people to raise their children.