Summary

California is slowly pulling out of a long recession and years of budget turmoil. Social services have been cut and many families have been struggling. In this context, an accurate assessment of the depth, breadth, and location of economic hardship in the state is especially important. To help policymakers and stakeholders determine whether programs aimed at reducing poverty are reaching those in need, we introduce the California Poverty Measure (CPM). A joint project of the Public Policy Institute of California and the Stanford University Center on Poverty and Inequality, the CPM is part of a national effort to measure poverty in a more comprehensive way. It incorporates the changes in costs and standards of living since the official poverty measure was devised in the early 1960s—and accounts for geographic differences in the cost of living across the state. It also factors in tax credits and in-kind assistance that can augment family resources and subtracts medical, commuting, and child care expenses. The CPM illuminates the important role of the social safety net—specifically, CalFresh, CalWORKs, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and other means-tested programs—in moderating poverty. Our findings indicate that the programs included in the CPM—which comprise the bulk of California’s social safety net— cut the state’s poverty rate substantially. But our findings also suggest that the additional resources counte