KQED: One in Five Californians Live in Poverty

About 20 percent of Californians lived below the Census’ “supplemental” poverty measure from 2014 to 2016, according to data released by the Bureau on Tuesday, exceeded only by D.C. “I think the fact that California’s poverty rate essentially held steady might mean that rising housing costs are really limiting the extent to which gains in the job market can lift people out of poverty,” said Alissa Anderson, senior policy analyst with the California Budget and Policy Center. By Lisa Pickoff-White and Erika Aguilar