Point Reyes Light - November 24, 2004
Many West Marin families barely scraping by
By Jim Kravets
The financial precariousness of EAH’s affordable-housing project has caused widespread concern in Point Reyes Station and neighboring towns, where the shortage of affordable housing is being felt acutely. To qualify for federal financial assistance, residents cannot earn more than the "Federal Poverty Line." In West Marin, ironically, the maximum income allowable is well below what residents need to meet Marin’s basic costs of living.
Last month, the United Way of the Bay Area released results of a study that revealed there is a large and previously unrecognized class of people with too much income to qualify for help but with not enough income to survive without it.
This growing minority – called the "overlooked and undercounted" by the study’s authors – regularly have to make hard choices between basic necessities such as housing, food, clothing, healthcare, transportation, and telephone service.
Weakness in poverty-line figures
Since its inception more than four decades ago, many researchers and policy analysts have recognized the various weaknesses of the Federal Poverty Line, as determined by the US Department of Health and Human Services. In particular, some critics argue the nationwide poverty line is now unrealistically low, no longer reflecting the real needs of families with working parents.
Nor does it take into account the fact that it costs more to live in some parts of the US than others, and such disparity is growing.
The new research was carried out by Dr. Diana Pearce at the University of Washington. She worked with Wider Opportunities for Women, which is based in Washington, DC, and with the National Economic Development & Law Center.
Self-Sufficiency Standards
The authors call the income level needed to maintain a decent standard of living and afford basic necessities the "Self-Sufficiency Standard." This figure varies from region to region even within a single county. Unlike the rigid Federal Poverty Line, the Self-Sufficiency Standards takes into account different types of households – single or multiple adults – with or without children. The standard considers the different demands that children of different ages make on family finances.
The Federal Poverty Line for a family (household) of one person is $8,980, of two people is $12,120, and of three people is $15,260. In Marin County where the median household income is just under $100,000, almost 17,500 households cannot afford basic needs.
Robyn Faraone, program officer for the United Way study, told The Light that in West Marin more than 27 percent of households live below the Self-Sufficiency Standard compared with 23 percent in other parts of the county and 25 percent throughout the Bay Area.
Single person in Marin needs $29,367 a year to barely get by
In Marin County a single adult needs an income of $29,367 in order to pay for basic needs, the researchers calculated. Likewise, the Self Sufficiency Standard for a household of one adult and one preschooler is $52,352.
The income in order for one adult, one preschooler, and one schoolage child to cover basic expenses here is $59,920. Two adults, one infant, and one preschooler require a household income of $69,585. To cover essential expenses, a Marin household consisting of two adults, one infant, and two preschoolers needs to earn $103,148 a year.
At the Point Reyes Affordable Housing project, financial assistance for some renters will come from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. To qualify for these "Section 8" vouchers, applicants’ combined incomes must fall below $39,000 for one person, $42,250 for two, and $50,900 for three.
While these incomes are above the Federal Poverty Line, discrepancies exist between the income required to meet basic needs and the income where housing assistance is given. For families of two, three and four members, West Marin households – to meet only basic needs – must have an income level which would then render them ineligible for subsidies at the EAH housing project.
Disparity in calculations
Incredibly, the incomes of some families here could be $9,000 a year less than they need to meet their basic needs, but the federal government could, nonetheless, consider them too highly paid to qualify for federal housing assistance.
A single West Marin resident who needs $29,000 to meet basic expenses may earn only $18,000 and yet have too great an income to qualify for some of the one-bedroom apartments in the Point Reyes Affordable Housing Project.
"That’s the challenge people face when cutoffs for assistance don’t reflect realistic costs in different places," Maria Stokes, spokeswoman for the United Way of the Bay Area, told The Light this week.
In October, San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano drafted a resolution that would set a goal of bringing the incomes of all city residents to the Self-Sufficiency Standard. The resolution, which has not yet gone before city supervisors for a vote, says San Francisco will "make concerted efforts to move families out of poverty towards economic self-sufficiency." This would be done through legislative initiative, budgetary decisions, and "executive policy directives."
Marin County has yet to propose a similar resolution, although the county did adopt a "living wage" ordinance in 2002. The resolution compels employers to increase base wages.
30% of California’s household income substandard
Statewide, more than three million households (about 30 percent) have "substandard" incomes (i.e. less than the Self-Sufficiency Standard). In contrast, the federal government figures that 11 percent of all US households fall below the Federal Poverty Line.
Because household incomes in the Bay Area are higher than in other parts of California, a smaller percentage of Bay Area households earn less than the Self-Sufficiency Standard despite the higher cost of living in the Bay Area.
Even with two parents working some families struggling financially
The authors of the United Way study found that families in California are by no means a marginal group but rather amount to a substantial proportion of the state’s households. Even families where both parents work fulltime are having trouble making ends meet, regardless of race or ethnic background.
The biggest family expense is housing followed by childcare. A single adult with no children needs to earn an average of $11 per hour just to pay for basic costs, with housing accounting for up to 60 percent of his or her expenses. Adding just one child almost doubles the wages required regardless of what county a family lives in with childcare accounting for most of the increase. Incomes, however, seldom increase when families add children, the United Way study notes. More than half of all California households containing a child under six have an inadequate income.
Childcare here costliest in state
On average, childcare costs in Marin County are the highest in the state, but the proportion of subsidized childcare spaces are the lowest in the Bay Area. Eligibility for Marin Head Start, the largest subsidized childcare program in the county, is based on the antiquated Federal Poverty Level.
By knowing the race and education of parents, it is fairly easy to predict whether a family is earning enough to meet its basic needs. For example, only a fifth of non-Hispanic white households in the Bay Area have incomes below the Self-Sufficiency Standard, but more than half of Latino households earn less than the Standard.
The authors reported that two-thirds of residents without a high school diploma (or equivalent) have incomes below self-sufficiency. By contrast, 90 percent of parents with a college degree have enough income to meet their family’s basic needs.
Fulltime employment itself does not insure self-sufficiency, the authors said. One out of five households with two working adults have an income inadequate to meet basic needs. What’s more, parents employed in 10 specific occupations account for more than 40 percent of households with insufficient incomes.
These jobs include clerical and administrative support, food service, retail sales, salaried management (largely in food service and retail), operating machinery (except precision machines), construction, cleaning, and building services, agricultural work, transportation, and personal services.