LA County Even Poorer Than We Thought: 27 Percent in Poverty

A few weeks ago, we heard from the US Census that an absurd/disgusting 19.1 percent of people in Los Angeles County were living below the poverty line in 2012 (and 23.3 percent in the city of LA). Turns out it's actually far worse than that! The LA Times reports on new data from the Public Policy Institute of California and the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, which "aims to present a fuller picture of poverty by taking into account living expenses and government benefits ignored in the official formula" (meaning it factors in cost of living in a particular area and the amount of aid residents there receive). The groups found that Los Angeles County is actually the poorest place in California, with 2.6 million Angelenos--27 percent--living in poverty in 2011. MORE THAN A QUARTER OF ALL PEOPLE IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY ARE IN POVERTY WHAT KIND OF PLACE IS THIS. The study challenges the idea that poverty is worst in rural areas and shows that "things would be much worse without state, federal and local safety net programs, including food stamps, CalWORKs and the earned income tax credit." Out-of-pocket medical costs are also a huge contributor to poverty.
· L.A. County leads California in poverty rate, new analysis shows [LAT]
· Nearly a Quarter of Angelenos Were Living in Poverty Last Year [Curbed LA]