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Poverty

The World Bank estimates that 1.7% of the US population, or 5.3 million people, live in deep poverty, subsisting on $4 or less per day. That is one of the highest rates of deeply poor individuals compared to wealthy developed nations.1 The official poverty rate for 2016 in the United States according to the US Census Bureau was 12.7%, that is 40.6 million people.2 Of those individual, the California Budget and Policy Center estimated that 14.9% live in California using the official poverty measure definition. However, if defined under the federal Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), which adjusts among other things for cost-of-living, 20.6% or 1 in 5 Californians struggle to afford basic necessities and nearly one quarter (23.8%) of children live in families struggling to make ends meet.3

AUHS Foundation strives to meet the needs of these individuals living in Los Angeles County, specifically, in the city of Signal Hill and Long Beach. Long Beach is a diverse city that is distinguished by the East side, West side and Central. In West and Central Long Beach 90,000 residents of Latino, Filipino, African-American, and Cambodian descent. Cambodia Town in Central Long Beach is home to nearly 18,000 Cambodian residents, representing the largest concentration of Cambodians outside of Cambodia. In 2016, 24% of Long Beach residents live in poverty. Rate of poverty among children living in Long Beach (27.8%) is much higher than the rate for the state of California (19.6%).4 Of the full-time employed, 25.7 percent still live in poverty despite working full-time.5 In the city of Signal Hill, 15.6% of residents live in poverty.6

1Source: World Bank

2Source: US Census Bureau, https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2017/demo/p60-259.html

3California Budget and Policy Center, http://calbudgetcenter.org/resources/better-measure-poverty-shows-widespread-economic-hardship-california/

4City Data, http://www.city-data.com/poverty/poverty-Long-Beach-California.html

5http://www.calendow.org/places/long-beach/

6http://www.city-data.com/city/Signal-Hill-California.html