16 SF Public Press
June 22, 2010 // sfpublicpress.org
ECONOMY
Better Ways to Measure Tough Times A Bay Area ‘Misery Index’ shows growth in hunger, joblessness
I
n 1976, Jimmy Carter devised a Misery Index to measure the level of economic hardship Americans were facing during that era’s recession. The index tracked the rates of inflation and unemployment added together, and during Carter’s tenure it reached 20 percent. Today, as the nation is gripped by another, deeper recession, New America Media created an expanded Misery Index to gauge the hardships experienced in California, which is feeling some Text: of the most painful effects of the Annette Fuentes economic downturn. Aaron Glantz The NAM Misery Index offers // New America Media Graphic: these indicators of how the Mary Catherine Plunkett recession, which began more // Public Press than two years ago, is reverberating through Californian’s own economy. The data are for the state, Alameda County and the city of Oakland and from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. Overall, the NAM Misery Index paints a picture of personal and financial deprivation that is growing yearby-year or even month-by-month. As a tool, the Index can be updated to reflect improvement as the economy recuperates and hardship begins to give way to recovery.
The statewide unemployment rate doubled from January 2008 to May 2010. Californians also saw an increased need for services.
This report was produced in collaboration with New America Media. Visit their website: newamericamedia.org
Food Stamps
General Assistance
Medi-Cal Enrollment
50 percent increase statewide
Up 45 percent statewide
5.7 percent increase statewide
More than 136,000 Californians now depend on General Assistance (also called General Relief in some places), an increase of 45 percent since January 2008. General Assistance is the last-chance social program for adults who are not able to support themselves and are not eligible for other public funds or assistance programs. To receive General Assistance, Californians must not own more than $1,000 in personal property. The benefits are small. In Alameda County, for example, the maximum cash grant for a single person on GA is $336 per month. In most counties, recipients are required to participate in workfare programs to get their checks. In San Francisco, they also get a Muni pass.
Nearly half a million more Californians turned to Medi-Cal, the government-sponsored health insurance program for the poor, in the last two years. More than 7 million Californians were on the Medi-Cal rolls in May 2009 (the most recent month where data is available), an increase of more than 400,000 from January 2008.
Over the past two years, a million more Californians have turned to food stamps to fill their bellies. According to the California Department of Social Services, nearly 3.2 million Californians were on food stamps in February 2010, up from about 2 million in February 2008. It's no wonder: According to a new report from the nonprofit Food Research Action, close to one-fifth of Californians reported not having enough money to buy food for themselves or their family in 2008 and 2009. The report found that about 25 percent of people in Bakersfield and Fresno and 20 percent of Los Angeles residents did not have enough money to buy the food they or their family needed. Conditions were slightly better in the Bay Area: 13 percent of residents in and around San Francisco, Oakland and Fremont reported their family was going hungry.
Auto Repossessions 6.5 percent increase statewide Californians may be losing their homes to foreclosure in record numbers, but data provided to NAM by the California Attorney General's office shows residents of the Golden State have had better luck holding onto their cars. The number of private vehicles in California's Stolen Vehicle Database (so-called because repossessed cars are those legally stolen from their owner) increased by a modest 6.5 percent last year, from 293,000 cars in 2008 to 312,000 in 2009.
Reduced-Cost School Lunches 2.5 percent increase in those eligible in Oakland From 2008 to 2009, the percent of Oakland public school students eligible for free and reduced school lunches increased by 2.5 percent, a small but significant rise. Free and reduced-cost lunches are subsidized by the federal government and available to students whose family income is at or below the federal poverty line. Free lunch numbers are a long-standing indicator of a school district’s poverty-level population. In Oakland Unified School District, the number of students eligible for free lunches has gone up. In the 2008-2009 school year, 66.55 percent of Oakland public school students were eligible for a free or reduced cost lunch, based on family income that is within the federal poverty line guidelines. In the current school year — 2009-2010 — 68.70 percent were eligible, according to Jennifer Le Barre, director of nutrition services for the OUSD. Oakland is not alone. California’s public school districts overall are seeing increased eligibility and participation in the lunch program, according to state education department data manager Sharon Ray: "Increase in participation in California is far outpacing any other state."
CalWORKs, the workfare program for families, is also experiencing an increased caseload. Some 565,000 families were enrolled in the program in January 2010, an increase of 17 percent from the beginning of 2008. In addition to cash assistance, CalWORKs also helps parents by providing counseling to victims of domestic violence, mental health and substance abuse treatment, and money to pay for childcare. Because of the state budget crisis, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed eliminating the program.
PG&E Utility Shut-Offs 17 percent increase Utility disconnects for nonpayment increased 17 percent for all PG&E residential customers in 2009, according to the California Division of Ratepayer Advocates. From 2006 to the present, the number of people who fell behind on their gas and electric bills and had their service turned off climbed steadily as the economy spiraled downward. Of PG&E’s roughly 5 million residential customers, 3.58 percent were disconnected in 2006, 4 percent in 2007, 4.4 percent in 2008 and 5.15 percent in 2009. Worst hit were the utility’s low-income customers, who comprise about a quarter of all residential utility users. In 2006, 3.92 percent of them were disconnected; in 2009, it jumped to 8.05 percent of all lowincome customers. The good news in this bad-news scenario is that 69 percent of customers at all income levels have their gas and electric service reconnected. Linda Serizawa, program manager at the ratepayers organization, said the fact that the reconnection rate is so high means that many disconnections are preventable. "Customers could find the funds to reconnect, so the challenge is to find out how to prevent service interruption," she said. The "smart meters" that PG&E and other utilities are installing allow companies to shut off service at a central office without sending out a utility worker.
Bay Area 211 Calls for Help 35 percent increase
Emergency Room Visits 16.4 percent increase in Alameda County Alameda County Medical Center in Oakland has seen a 16.4 percent increase in visits to its emergency room from 73,000 in 2008 up to an anticipated 85,000 for 2009. As thousands of people join the unemployed, they lose their health benefits and may turn to the hospital emergency room as the physician of last resort. According to medical center spokeswoman Andrea Breaux, most of the uninsured that come to the hospital’s ER do so for prescription refills. Eligible uninsured patients are enrolled in Medi-Cal, while those who do not qualify may be enrolled in the County Medical Services Program (CMSP) for so-called indigent residents. According to Breaux, CMSP enrollments at Alameda Medical Center are going up.
The 211 hotline, created in 2008, is an information and referral phone service that directs callers to housing/shelter, food, utility, clothing, childcare and employment assistance. Operated in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma, Marin and Napa counties by nonprofit agencies, Bay Area 211 has seen demand for its services mushroom in its short existence. In the first half of 2008, calls to 211 operators totaled 74,646 — a 35 percent jump from the same six-month period in 2009. For that period, the greatest number of calls — 30,176 — was about housing and utility assistance, representing a 27 percent increase over the previous year. Food assistance increased 57 percent year to year, while income and employment service-related calls increased by 43 percent. Alameda County’s 211 hotline, operated by Eden I&R, saw a 247 percent increase in calls from Spanish speaking callers from 2008 to 2009, with rent assistance, food and emergency shelter among the top needs each year.
In a cruel twist, however, those Medi-Cal benefits are buying less and less health care. The state is so broke that last year Gov. Schwarzenneger eliminated a host of benefits from Medi-Cal coverage, including dental, vision and mental health care, acupuncture, hearing exams, speech therapy, chiropractic services and foot care. This year, with the state facing a $20 billion budget deficit, Schwarzenneger plans to cut $500 million in other, "optional" benefits not required by federal law.
Unemployment 100 percent increase statewide It's almost impossible to imagine, but two years ago, California's unemployment rate stood at 6.4 percent. By March 2010, 12.6 percent of Californians were officially unemployed, a very limited indicator that does not count people who have become so discouraged that they've stopped looking for work, or those whose benefits have expired. But Bay Area residents can thank their lucky stars they don't live in Imperial County, which borders Mexico and Arizona. Unemployment there increased from 17 percent in January 2008 to 27 percent in August 2009. Another telling indicator of unemployment is the number of claims for unemployment insurance. California has registered a record number, as 6.5 million people filed for unemployment in 2009, nearly doubling the record 3.6 million who asked for cash assistance the year before. So many Californians are out of work that the California Economic Development Department says it had to pay out over $20 billion in unemployment benefits in 2009. With so many unemployed Californians, it's no wonder the state's unemployment insurance program is nearly $7 billion in the red, according to a report by the investigative news nonprofit ProPublica.
Evictions 7.1 percent increase in Oakland Landlords are required to file a notice of eviction with the Oakland Rent Adjustment office and must give it to tenants within 10 days. According to the office, there were 8,732 eviction notices filed in 2008 and 9,349 filed in 2009, representing a 7.1 percent increase from year to year.
Indigent Health Services 8 percent increase in Alameda County Alameda County’s Medical Services Program, a healthcare safety net for uninsured residents, has seen steady increases in enrollment over the past three years, according to county finance director Vana Chavez. For FY 2007-2008, CMSP had 56,000 unduplicated patients; for 2008-2009, it served 60,200 patients; and current enrollment is at 65,000, an 8 percent increase from last year. Meanwhile, the funding base for CMSP — sales tax and vehicle registration fees — is dropping as sales tax collections fall and fewer people buy and register cars. "I’ve worked in this capacity 20 years and I’ve never seen anything like this," Chavez said. She added that new CMSP enrollees are mainly the newly unemployed who have assets that disqualify them for Medi-Cal. CMSP doesn’t have an assets test for applicants, so such people would qualify.