More than a third of California’s families can’t afford a decent standard of living, according to a new report by the United Way of California.
"The real cost measure takes a look at what it takes to get by, including the cost of housing, transportation, health care, child care, and food," said Mitchel Sloan, President and CEO of the United Way of Ventura County.
"What we've learned in terms of impacts on Ventura County residents is 57% of the households with children under the age of six struggle," said Sloan. "Single moms are the most likely to struggle."
The report shows the percentage of struggling families is even higher in Santa Barbara County, as 64% of households with children under six aren't able to make ends meet.
More than 150,000 households in the Tri-Counties don’t hit the study’s minimum amount of income to meet basic needs. The total includes 75,000 families in Ventura County, 48,000 in Santa Barbara County, and nearly 29,000 in San Luis Obispo County.
"For a family of four, you almost need to have three minimum wage jobs just to meet those basic needs to get by," said Sloan. "That is not sustainable. In Ventura County, for a family of four, they would need to earn $114,456 a year."
The report said households with young children are struggling the most, with Latino and Black families affected at a disproportionately higher rate.
Sloan said one of the biggest factors is the chronic shortage of affordable housing.
"We really want everybody in our community to thrive, and that all starts with housing, and it's really going to take a collective effort by our community to find a viable solution," said Sloan.
The United Way is doing something to try to help in Ventura County. It has a relatively new program helping families on the verge of eviction.
"In February of 2024, we launched a homelessness prevention program," said Sloan. It helps houses on the verge of eviction. "We're really proud we've been able to keep over a hundred families housed since that time, and that includes over 200 people. We have achieved a 97.5% housing retention rate," said Sloan.
There have been some bright spots, like the increase in minimum wage, and relatively low unemployment. But, United Way officials say families are regularly being forced to make tough decisions, like forgoing health or child care.
They say government leaders need to step up with short and long-term solutions.
"We are urging legislators to consider policy that can help our working families, and those areas include tax credits, like the child tax credit, the California earned income tax credit, as well as any kind of policies that help with housing," said Slone.
Sloan said in the near term, things are probably going to get worse for struggling families, especially with cuts in government aid, and the uncertainty over the economy being caused by tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration.
The United Way report was released in advance of the state’s May budget revisions. With federal funding cuts expected to impact health and nutrition programs like Medi-Cal and CalFresh, the idea is that the survey information may help shape the response of state lawmakers.
