California Divide

Covering income inequality across the state

Families carry boxes full of fresh produce during a food bank event at El Verano elementary on Nov. 1, 2019. Photo by Anne Wernikoff, CalMatters

How hungry is California? Millions struggle to eat well in an abundant state

How bad is California hunger? A lot depends on your access to food aid, which expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic but is being reduced.

Rya Jetha

Jeanne Kuang

and

Jeremia Kimelman

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents transfer an immigrant after an early morning raid in Duarte on June 6, 2022. Photo by Damian Dovarganes, AP Photo

California Divide

California bill would fund deportation defense for all immigrants, including those with felonies

The state already pays some legal bills in immigration court – but not for those with serious or violent felony records. If they can’t afford a lawyer, they face deportation alone. Assembly member Reggie Jones-Sawyer says that’s not due process.

Wendy Fry

• March 16, 2023

Michelle Hackett at the entrance to Riverview Farms in Salinas that flooded in the mid-March storms. Photo by Martin do Nascimento, CalMatters

Economy

As emergency aid flows to flooded-out Californians, will thousands get the help they need?

California has sometimes moved to help victims of emergencies who are excluded from federal aid‚ such as undocumented workers and cannabis businesses.

Lauren Hepler

Nicole Foy

and

Wendy Fry

• March 15, 2023

Anneisha Williams in El Segundo on Feb. 20, 2023. Williams decided to stop using traditional banking systems after a bank declined to refund her for money stolen out of her account by a hacker. Photo by Lauren Justice for CalMatters

California Divide

Helping the ‘unbanked’: California mulls entering banking business to serve disadvantaged consumers

Studies say 1 in 4 Californians lacks full access to banks and many pay big fees. A state commission is weighing how to provide public banking options, such as no-fee checking accounts.

Wendy Fry

• March 9, 2023

Supporters of United Farmworkers of America march to the state Capitol in Sacramento on Aug. 26, 2022, urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign AB 2183. Photo by Rahul Lal, CalMatters

California Divide

California farmworkers just gained the right to vote for unions by mail, but for how long?

California farmworkers marched 335 miles last year to pressure Gov. Gavin Newsom on a law that would help them unionize. Then the union agreed to give back a key win.

Nicole Foy

• March 6, 2023

Community activist Morris Griffin speaks during a meeting with the state Reparations Task Force at the California Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Sacramento on March 3, 2023. Photo by Rahul Lal for CalMatters

California Divide

‘Coming for our check’: State task force wants strong new agency to handle reparations

A state-appointed panel inching toward recommendations for reparations wants a new state agency to handle compensation and services to Black people.

Wendy Fry

• March 6, 2023

Martha Herrera, a nanny, house cleaner and member of a state advisory committee that issued a set of first-in-the-nation workplace safety guidelines for domestic workers this year, in San Francisco on Feb. 28, 2023. Photo by Martin do Nascimento, CalMatters

California Divide

Worker safety laws don’t protect these California workers. A new bill would change that

Workers who clean houses or take care of children and the elderly are in a class by themselves; they are not covered by state or federal workplace safety regulations. The exclusion has racist origins, advocates say.

Jeanne Kuang

• March 2, 2023

The I-980 freeway in Oakland on Feb. 24, 2023. Photo by Martin do Nascimento, CalMatters

California Divide

Undoing the past: Lawmakers seek to mend California neighborhoods sliced by highways

During the interstate highway construction boom, urban neighborhoods were sliced apart, often isolating the homes of minorities and low-income residents. California lawmakers are exploring ways to undo some of that harm by reconnecting neighborhoods.

Wendy Fry

• February 28, 2023

A homeless encampment near the Guadalupe River Trail in San Jose in Jan. 2022. Photo by Anda Chu, Bay Area News Group

California Divide

Silicon Valley’s vast wealth disparity deepens as poverty increased

One of the world’s richest regions has some of its starkest divides, with its top 10% of households holding two-thirds of its wealth.

Alejandro Lazo

• February 17, 2023

A field of orchards flooded after a series of storms near the town of Planada on Jan. 17, 2023. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

California Divide

Floods, fires, droughts show California needs bigger safety net for farmworkers, advocates say

January’s rains flooded farm fields and orchards. Many California farmworkers lost weeks of pay. Advocates say the state should help them weather such crises. A leading proposal would pay $300 a week to undocumented workers.

Nicole Foy

• February 16, 2023

Illustration by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters; iStock

California Divide

More than 12,000 Californians are getting cash from guaranteed income experiments

State and local governments, and some private funders, are launching dozens of pilot projects making direct, monthly payments to low-income residents to help meet basic needs. Researchers will study what happens next. Key question: will this money add to, reform, or supplant current welfare programs?

Jeanne Kuang

• February 14, 2023