Pastor Poverty Q2
State governments can allocate the monetary resources necessary to ensure that programs and services are set in place for all Californians to thrive. One major issue facing California’s poor is affordable housing, or in this case, unaffordable housing. In California, about half of very low-income renter households and about three-quarters of extremely low-income households pay more than half their earnings in rent. In addition to allocating the necessary monetary resources to supplement deficiencies, the state can also step in and develop policies that expand affordable housing, strengthen rent stabilization measures, and develop programs for social housing. Of course, another way to address housing is through raising incomes and above we have discussed a range of measures that could help; one important and welcome step has been the state’s recent expansion of the earned income tax credit, a program that effectively targets California’s working poor and could be expanded further in coming years.
