Economic Inequality

California Divide

California, 13 other states sue to stop Trump’s food stamp cuts

Fourteen states, including California, filed suit Thursday against the Trump administration to block a rule that would eliminate food stamps for an estimated 688,000 Americans. “No one should have to choose between a hot meal and paying their rent,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Yet again, the Trump Administration has failed […]

By Jackie Botts • January 16, 2020

California Divide

Child support payback reform gets new life in proposed state budget

After vetoing a bill to reform the state’s child support payback system, Gov. Gavin Newsom has revived efforts to give families on public assistance a greater share of their support payments in his proposed 2020-21 budget. The changes, which if implemented would go into effect January 2022, would provide funding to boost the amount families […]

By Erica Hellerstein • January 13, 2020

California Divide

Why one county is exploring giving $1,000 monthly to every youth aging out of foster care

When Dontae Lartigue left foster care right before his 19th birthday in 2009, finding housing in Santa Clara County was one of his biggest obstacles. He struggled to find places he could afford on his $12 an hour wages at Walmart, and with a limited income and no rental history, landlords were often wary of […]

By Erica Hellerstein • January 13, 2020

California Divide

‘Not the Golden State anymore’: Middle- and low-income people leaving California

Updated Jan. 10, 2020 Lee este artículo en español. In 2017, Susanna Cardenas-Lopez left her home in Salinas to visit her brother in Idaho. Three days into her trip, she called her husband and told him they needed to move there. Back in Salinas, Cardenas-Lopez and her husband were left out in the cold after their […]

By Kate Cimini • January 8, 2020

California Divide

‘It’s like a nightmare you never wake up from.’ Parents wait years for subsidized daycare

Tamara Hudson’s workday routine typically starts before 4 a.m., when the bleary-eyed single mother rouses her 2-year-old son in their Redwood City home, wraps him in a blanket and places him in her Honda for the first of her 40-mile round trips to the closest daycare provider she can afford. After dropping him off in […]

By Erica Hellerstein • November 29, 2019

California Divide

“We need the food that we lost.” Low-income families still reeling from blackouts

Pacific Gas & Electric turned off power to Ana Patricia Rios’ neighborhood in Sonoma County for eight days in October, three at the beginning of the month and five near the end. The mother of three young boys watched twice as nearly all of the food in her refrigerator spoiled. She threw out at least […]

By Jackie Botts • November 22, 2019

California Divide

Nearly half of San Francisco families are financially insecure

Despite San Francisco’s higher-than-average median household income, nearly half of all families in the city have less than $2,000 in savings and are financially insecure, a report released by the nonprofit Urban Institute today found. That makes them more vulnerable to eviction and missed payments in the face of an unexpected job loss or medical […]

By Erica Hellerstein • November 6, 2019

California Divide

California families are hungry while a third of crops rot in fields

Maximina Molina Sanchez is worried about going hungry this winter. She depends on a food bank in Huron to feed her husband and two kids. But with most agricultural workers out of jobs during the winter, demand is bound to increase, so she worries there won’t be enough food to feed everyone who needs it. […]

By Manuela Tobias • October 18, 2019

California Divide

Newsom vetoed two bills aimed at reforming child support payback system

Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed two child support reform bills that anti-poverty advocates had hoped would give a boost to low-income families in California. The bills would have sent more child support money to families receiving public benefits and eliminated interest on overdue child support payments owed to the government. Supporters had argued that the […]

By Erica Hellerstein • October 15, 2019

California Divide

These laws could make life a little easier for low-income Californians

A suite of low-profile bills could make life just a little easier for millions of Californians living in or near poverty. Think of these bills as a bit like aspirin: they don’t get at the roots of poverty but they could relieve some of the pain.

By Jackie Botts • October 10, 2019