Study says dignified life on Central Coast elusive for many
Access to such basic needs as food and shelter, health care, education for the very young, and higher education for all leaves much to be desired in California and the Central Coast.
That’s according to a new study by California Lutheran University professor Jamshid Damooei, executive director of the Thousand Oaks University’s Center for Economics of Social Issues.
The study, “Affording a Dignified Life on the Central Coast of California: Challenges and Opportunities,” was unveiled at a Feb. 28 program at the Thousand Oaks-based university.
“California is incredibly prosperous,” Damooei told the Business Times. “And yet we persistently have poverty and particularly child poverty in this state and the Central Coast where income distribution is very, very skewed.”
The report says that “dignity presents grace under challenging circumstances, respecting everyone for their common humanity. This is recognized in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
The study examines data from Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties.
Known as the American Riviera, the Central Coast spans 15,000 square miles, and makes up roughly 9% of the state’s total area and about 6% of its population — roughly 2.3 million people.
“The foreign-born population (of the region) is of crucial significance to this study,” the report says.
“It includes undocumented immigrants, which brings essential economic and social uncertainties and can be looked into to explain several social justice concerns.”
The study asks if the Central Coast economy is working for all residents.
The answer is no, the report finds.
“The persistence of poverty over time and the extreme vulnerability of tens of thousands of families in the region are good reasons to believe that despite the open-mindedness of many policymakers, our regional economy has failed to lift a significant proportion of its people out of the endless struggle to have a dignified life in the state,” the study says.
A lack of affordable housing, for instance, has been linked to inadequate nutrition, especially among young children, according to the report.
“Access to affordable housing is a key social determinant of health,” it says.
Living wage in the region, meanwhile, is out of reach for many, the report says.
“Our study shows that in some counties, the percentage of jobs paying a living wage for a single parent with one child is less than 10% in two of the six counties (Monterey and Santa Cruz counties), just about 15% in another two (San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties), nearly 20% in the fifth one (Ventura County), and only in the much smaller county of San Benito, it is about 47%,” the report says.
In Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, those job sectors paying a living wage are legal, management, healthcare practitioners and technical, computer and mathematical, and architecture and engineering.
The study created an Economic and Social Opportunity Index comprising three indices: economic well-being, health and public safety, and economic and social inclusion.
Data for each factor in each index were gathered for the six Central Coast counties across all 96 zip codes.
“This opens a window to look through people’s lives across the Central Coast of California in every neighborhood captured by zip codes,” the report says.
“It presents poverty in some, low income in many, and widespread deprivation in almost all counties in some or more zip codes,” the study says.
The report found that some $4 billion in federal and state entitlements for the region are not being utilized.
“Our study shows that we could utilize federal and state entitlements for preschool on the Central Coast to benefit some 33,106 children ages three and four years old and bring some $367 million in funding into the region,” the study says.
Despite the region’s dire need for food security, $217 million has not been used, according to the report. That could help 71,528 families with their nutritional assistance, the study says.
The report estimates that almost $3.5 billion of potential housing vouchers have been left unutilized.
This could lift the burden of unaffordability from the shoulders of some 165,456 householders, the study says.
“We need an inclusive economy that embraces all, including undocumented immigrants,” the report concludes.
“Justice means not exploiting vulnerable people, and this does not mean just through empty words but through action in our labor market, housing, health care system, educational institute, and staying away from any form of exploitation,” the study says.
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