Poverty rate still near all-time high in Bay Area

Apr 2, 2015, 12:03pm PDT

Not all ships have risen with the tide, especially in the Bay Area. The poverty rate in the region still hovers near its all-time high, with more than 800,000 people living below the poverty line.

About 11.3 percent of those living in the Bay Area are existing at or below the poverty line, according to a new report out on Wednesday from the Joint Venture Silicon Valley Institute for Regional Studies.

Joint Venture Silicon Valley

“It’s important that we have a better understanding of how poverty is changing in our region over time,” Rachel Massaro, a senior research associate for the Institute, said in a press release. “Poverty is an integral part of our persistent growth issues, like high housing costs and income inequality.”

The study used data from 2013, the most recent available, and defined poverty thresholds as annual income of $11,490 for a one-person household to $23,550 for a family of four.

The median income for skilled tech workers tops $118,700, while low-skill workers' wages hover around $27,000, according to a report from Joint Venture Silicon Valley earlier this year.

Here are some of the surprising facts about poverty in the region:

The wealth hasn’t spread

"Despite being one of the world's wealthiest regions, there were 829,547 people living in poverty in the Bay Area in 2013," the authors of the report wrote.

While the region has one of the fastest growing economies, many don’t have the skills to keep up with the tech-based economy.

Despite a booming economy, poverty rates are well above historic average

While poverty figures in the area are below the record level of 12 percent set in 2009 during the Great Recession, the current levels are significantly above the historic average of 9 percent for the region.

San Francisco has the highest rates of poverty, Alameda County not far behind

San Francisco saw the highest poverty level in the area at 13.8 percent, while Alameda County's poverty rate stood at 12.9 percent. Contra Costa County was at 10.8 percent, while Santa Clara County was at 10.5 percent. The lowest rate in the region was San Mateo County at 7.8 percent.

Comparatively, California has a poverty rate of 16.8 percent while the entire U.S. hovers around 15.8 percent. However, cost of living in the area is exponentially higher than in the rest of the country, putting greater stress on Bay Area residents.

“With rents in some parts of the Bay Area 185 percent higher, home prices up to 250 percent higher, and the cost of goods and services 6 percent higher than in the United States as a whole ... the ‘cost of living’ in the Bay Area is undoubtedly different,” the report stated. “As such, the poverty rate in the Bay Area could be as much as three or four percentage points higher, putting poverty in the Bay Area on par with the state and nation.”

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