Story Created:
Feb 11, 2010 at 1:03 PM PST
Story Updated:
Feb 11, 2010 at 1:03 PM PST
Compared to the rest of the nation, Los Angeles County has a bigger population of “working poor” residents, and the gap between rich and poor is growing, according to a United Way study released Tuesday.
“L.A. County 10 Years Later: A Tale of Two Cities, One Future” compares the social and economic climate in Los Angeles in 1999 to that in 2009. One bright spot was a slight improvement in grades on standardized tests at public schools.
The report provides business, community and education leaders with a tool for measuring how the county is faring in terms of employment and income; homelessness and housing; and health and education.
The report incorporates goals and recommendations made within United Way’s 10-year Action Plan, launched in 2007, which addresses issues facing Los Angeles County and provides the tools necessary to move more people out of poverty.
The report’s findings illustrate that Los Angeles is made up of “haves and have nots,” with 250,000 millionaires and 1.4 million poor, or 15 percent of the population, and that the gap between the rich and poor is widening.
The findings underscore the erosion of the middle class, according to the report, and the city is in danger of falling farther behind the rest of the country.
Key findings include:
• The working poor in L.A. County is 7.5 percent greater than the nation as a whole.
• Over the past decade, the graduation rate has remained at 60 percent, well below the national average of 70 percent.
• Obesity is on the rise at all income levels, with rates growing twice as fast for poor adults.
• And an increase in the number of residents paying 30 percent or more of their income on rent.
Key areas in which improvement has been made in the last decade:
• Average test scores are up for all grades, and participation in math classes are on the rise in younger grades.
• Children had greater access to health coverage.
• And violent crime has declined by over 30 percent in the last decade.
“It’s been 10 years since we coined the term ‘working poor’ and it’s clear that Los Angeles County’s economic and social sustainability is severely threatened,” said Elise Buik, president and CEO of United Way of Greater Los Angeles.
“We need to invest in our human capital in order to meet the growing economic and social demands we’re facing now,” she said. “We can do this by focusing our efforts on key areas that can bring us the most progress — jobs, education and housing. If we all pay attention to what is happening in our city and work towards shifting policy, it will help Los Angeles reinvent itself and make change and progress.”
The United Way report also finds that problems once thought confined to the poor, like excessive rents, falling wages and uncertain health care coverage, are affecting those who are better off, said USC professor Manuel Pastor.
“It is of utmost importance to shore up the bottom in order to grow the middle class in Los Angeles, and we must take action now because shoring up the bottom will help secure the middle,” Pastor said.
“It’s not just about plugging the holes in our social safety net, as studies have shown that in regions with higher poverty, more segregation and wider income disparities cause slower overall growth,” he said. “We can’t leave people behind, or we’ll continue to come up short in both our human capital and social consensus, both important to the county’s prosperity.”
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