At a well-attended briefing in Sacramento this week, PPIC research fellow Sarah Bohn described the findings in a newly released report, Child Poverty and the Social Safety Net in California, that she co-authored with PPIC research fellow Caroline Danielson, who also attended.
The authors found that about a quarter of California children live in poverty and an additional 26% live in “near poverty,â a threshold defined by incomes between 100 and 150% of the official poverty threshold (up to $46,000 annually for a family of four on average). The poverty analysis was based on the California Poverty Measure, developed by researchers at PPIC and the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality. Unlike the traditional federal measure, the new analysis considers regional cost-of-living differences, as well as assistance from government social programs, in measuring poverty.
Bohn also talked about the report and related issues today at an event titled Attacking Poverty by Connecting College Education & Workforce Development, hosted in Los Angeles by state senator Holly Mitchell.