More Sonoma County residents in poverty, Census data show

A decade of hard times has left nearly 1 in 8 Sonoma County residents living below the federal poverty threshold, according to recent estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

At 12.3 percent for 2014, the share of county residents who now live below official poverty is 2 percentage points greater than it was in 2010. In 2014, the federal poverty level was $14,580 for an individual and $29,820 for a family of four.

Meanwhile, the county’s median household income has remained flat at just below $64,000 a year.

“Incomes haven’t even kept up with inflation,” said Oscar Chavez, assistant director of the county Human Services Department. “What you’ve seen is increases in the cost of living, rent, transportation, food … and that’s resulted in fewer take-home dollars and that’s kept more people in poverty.”

While county economic development experts have forecasted improvements in locally in the next couple of years, living wage advocates warn of an ongoing lopsided recovery that is not benefiting the lowest income earners.

Between 2010 and 2014, an average of 12.3 percent of the county’s population were below the poverty line. During the previous 5-year period, between 2005 and 2009, an average of 9.6 percent of county residents lived in poverty. The shift represents an increase of almost 30 percent for that share of the county’s poorest resident.

Marty Bennett, co-chairman of North Bay Jobs with Justice, said the 1-in-8 statistic does not reflect the true nature of poverty in Sonoma County or across the country. Bennett said that even at 200 percent of the poverty level, individuals and families are struggling to get by.

“There’s poverty, but then there’s working poverty where you’re working but wages are so low you can’t attain self-sufficiency,” Bennett said.

Bennett’s group recently spearheaded a living-wage campaign that would lift the minimum wage to $15 an hour for about 5,500 county-affiliated workers, including nearly 5,000 in-home support workers. Last week the county approved a much narrower living-wage ordinance that would cover 1,100 nonprofit employees and county contractors over the next five years.

Bennett said that on its own, the current economic recovery is not lifting anyone out of poverty. Instead, the recovery is creating mostly low-wage jobs that pay less than $15 an hour, he said.

“We have to first and foremost raise the minimum wage; we have to have minimum- and living- wage campaigns,” he said. “It’s spreading like wildfire except here in Sonoma County.”

While poverty is increasing, the local median household income has remained stagnant.

According to the census bureau’s five-year analysis, the county’s average median household income was $63,848 a year for the period between 2005 and 2009. Five years later, between 2010 and 2014, the average income was virtually unchanged at $63,799.

“It’s not just a story unique to Sonoma County where you see declines in the middle class,” Chavez said. “That’s really a story that’s playing out across the nation.”

In contrast, Chavez said wages for the county’s highest income earners are increasing. He said promoting greater educational attainment for low-income residents is crucial to achieve a more balanced economic landscape.

“We know that a more educated population results in higher revenue for the county, more jobs and more economic output,” he said.

Ben Stone, executive director of the Sonoma County Economic Development Board, said the increase in proportion of county residents living in poverty is likely a result of the recession. He said the local economy should continue to improve in the next couple of years.

“A good part of the last decade has been a long slog for a large part of the population,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll see the poverty figure come down to the historic average of about 10 percent.”

News researcher Janet Balicki contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com.?On Twitter @renofish.