THE EDGE OF POVERTY: Three stories of survival in San Luis Obispo County

One stumble from despair

With poverty indicators on the rise, more and more local families are walking an economic high wire with their livelihoods and homes in the balance

By Sarah Arnquist

An increasing number of middle-class families in San Luis Obispo County are just an unexpected medical problem or lost job away from falling into poverty.

A key reason: a local economy that is more service-based with low-paying jobs.

Add to that a shortage of affordable housing and high home prices, experts say, and more families from across the demographic scale are being pushed to the brink.

While the county remains better off than the state average on most indicators of poverty and well-being, many trend lines show it is moving in the wrong direction. Consider these dramatic changes between 2000 and 2007:

• Nearly one in three students now qualifies for free and reduced-cost meals in county schools, so educators consider them impoverished. That’s up 17 percent in the past seven years.

• The number of adults and children enrolled in public health insurance, Medi-Cal or Healthy Families increased by 46 percent to 33,500 from 22,891, according to the state Department of Health Services statistics.

•While home prices have been going up, the county’s median income has fallen each year after

For immigrant family, San Simeon motel room is home peaking in 2004 at $54,442. In 2007, it was $50,698 and there are no signs of it turning around soon, according to UCSB economic forecasters.

• The number of families receiving traditional welfare cash assistance remained virtually unchanged, but the number receiving food stamps doubled to 2,895 from 1,407. Food stamps are considered a preventive measure to help keep families off cash assistance. Their rise indicates

Poverty in San Luis Obispo County cannot be entirely attributed to new immigrants from Mexico or Central America, Watkins said. About 18 percent of the county’s population is Hispanic. That’s far less than the state average or that of any neighboring county.

About 7 percent of families in the county live in poverty compared with 10 percent across the state.

Coastal California used to have more opportunities for young families, but over the years the economy has relied increasingly on tourism, retail and other services to create jobs, which do not pay enough more families are hovering just above the line to qualify for full welfare.

“The squeeze on low-income, working families has definitely gotten tighter,” said Lee Collins, director of San Luis Obispo County Department of Social Services.

From his vantage point as the head of the county’s welfare and assistance programs, Collins said the situation seems to be worsening.

Meanwhile, governments at all levels are trimming their budgets as the state and nation’s economies slow down and the possibility of a recession looms.

The cuts mean larger holes in the safety-net programs, such as Medi-Cal and welfare, at a time when more families may need a boost to keep food on the table at the end of the month, Collins said.

“The resources to battle poverty are dependent on a strong economy,” Collins said. “The conundrum of our funding is when the need increases, the resources to meet those increased needs fall apart.”

Admittedly, poverty is a complex problem with sources and solutions beyond a county’s boundaries, said Julian Crocker, county schools superintendent. But it cannot be ignored, he said, because so many social ills—such as poor academic performance, crime or health disparities — are rooted in poverty.

“There’s an attitude that the poor have always been with us and that’s just something you have to live with,” Crocker said. “I don’t believe that, and most people working in public education don’t believe that.

“From generation to generation, education has been the stepping stone to a better quality of life.”