4 in 10 people in California are living below or near the poverty line – Highest poverty rate in the nation

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-road-map-poverty-report-20180729-story.html

California’s greatest contradiction is almost Dickensian: In a state often cited as home to scores of billionaires, almost 4 in every 10 residents are living at or near the poverty line.

Some live in rural regions removed from the state’s economic recovery. Others live in bustling cities or even along the state’s world-famous coastline. Most impoverished adults, contrary to conventional wisdom, have a job. A disturbingly large number of the poor are children.

California has a poverty problem that won’t be easily solved, a reality made clear in a report released last week by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

Researchers from PPIC and Stanford University, who believe federal poverty guidelines fail to capture true hardship in the state, adjusted their criteria to include things like the cost of living. When they did two counties stood out: Los Angeles and Santa Cruz, each with a roughly 24% poverty rate. Santa Barbara County isn’t far behind, nor is San Francisco.