SB 298 pending in the state legislature sets a goal of cutting California’s child poverty rate in half by 2039.
- Nearly one in five children in California under 18 years old, or nearly 2 million kids, live in poverty.
- A bill pending in the state legislature sets an ambitious goal of cutting California’s child poverty rate in half by 2039 and also eliminating the number of kids in “deep poverty” by 2024.
- In some counties of the state, more than 40% of all young kids are living in poverty.
- Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal released in January includes more than $500 million next year on programs that target reducing child poverty.
California may be the fifth-largest economy in the world, but poverty is more prevalent among families with children in the state than in the rest of the nation.
In fact, in some counties of the state, more than 40% of all young kids are living in poverty. A bill pending in the state legislature sets an ambitious goal of cutting California’s child poverty rate in half by 2039 and also eliminating the number of kids in “deep poverty” by 2024.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first budget proposal released in January includes more than $500 million next year on programs that target reducing child poverty and much more to address homelessness and the affordable housing shortage.
“California has the highest poverty rate in the nation,” said state Sen. Anna Caballero during the CalCAPA annual Legislative Breakfast stating she authored, Senate Bill 298. The Human Services Committee voted to advance the bill in April with bipartisan support.
Caballero, a Democrat from the state’s Central Valley region, told the Community Action network that California has set statewide goals on energy, water, and fighting climate change and now is the time to do the same for child poverty.
About 500,000 California kids live in families considered in “deep poverty,” or half of the official federal poverty level.
The proposed bill to slash child poverty rates in California follows a task force report issued last November that recommended strategies to address the situation. Among the recommendations were more housing for low-income families and expansion of Medi-Cal, the government-funded health care coverage for the poor and those at risk of entering poverty.
According to the task force report, “Poverty disproportionately impacts communities of color and immigrants,” including nearly one-third of Hispanics.
Still, things could be worse without California’s social safety net programs. “Without the social safety net, estimates suggest that poverty would increase by 12.5 percentage points, deep poverty rates would triple in California, and over one million more children would be in poor households,” according to the task force.
Overall, Newsom’s revised state budget for the upcoming fiscal year starting July 1 is pushing for more than $2 billion in spending on housing initiatives to help ease the homelessness crisis and to build more low- and moderate-income housing. The governor also wants to grant an increase to the lowest-income families served by CalWorks.