POVERTY RATES HIGH IN PORTIONS OF EAST COUNTY

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January 20, 2014 (San Diego’s East County) – The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) has released a new report on poverty.  Included in the report are five-year estimates of poverty in our region, based on the American Community Survey in 2011.

El Cajon has by far the highest poverty rate in San Diego County, with 32% of individuals living below the poverty level and 49% living within 200% of the federal poverty level.   National City has the next highest level, a full ten points lower at 22% living in poverty.

Among East County cities, Lemon Grove has 18% of its citizens living below the poverty level, followed by La Mesa at 12% and Santee at just 8%.  The County average overall is 13% below the poverty level and 30% within 200% of the poverty level.   Nationally, about 14% of people are living in poverty.

 Unincorporated communities are not calculated separately, so we don’t know what the poverty levels are in rural communities such as Alpine, Campo, Julian or Jacumba.

Despite these figures, the majority of those in poverty have not received any public assistance in the last year in our region.

Of families living in poverty in San Diego County, 28% said they had received Supplemental Security income and/or cash public assistance in the past year, but only 4% of households had received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, or food stamps, locally.

The federal Census Bureau's definition of poverty varies based on age and family size, but was $11,945 a year in 2012 for a single person under the age of 65.


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