More than 600,000 California Seniors Living in Poverty

More than 660,000 older Americans in California are living below the poverty line, according to an analysis by the health research site KFF, the highest number in the country.

The number—662,000—amounts to about 11 percent of California residents who were 65 or older in 2022. In percentage terms, the District of Columbia was the leading area with more than 20 percent of seniors living below the poverty line.

In 2022, the poverty line was $14,040 for an individual age 65 or older and $17,710 for a home with resident age 65 or older.

Overall, about 6 million older Americans were living in poverty in the United States, according to KFF’s analysis, amounting to about 1 in 10 of that demographic. The U.S. poverty levels fell during COVID-19 as a result of government helping provide support in the pandemic-induced economic crisis.

Housing costs, which typically tend to amount to about one-third of people’s expenses, are substantially high in the Golden Gate State compared to the rest of the country. In 2023, for example, the average rent was $1,837, compared to the national level of about to $1,702, according to Smart Asset. Overall, the cost of living is 38 percent higher in the states compared to the national average, Rent Cafe said.

The lack of affordable housing is particularly significant in putting pressure on older Americans and their incomes.

“The lack of enough affordable housing is forcing low-income older Californians to make hard choices about whether to pay their rent or buy food, medicine, or meet other basic needs,” according to a Justice in Aging, an organization that works in anti-poverty issue affecting seniors. “It is also the primary driver of the continuing alarming increase in older adult homelessness.

“Six out of ten of all older renter households in California face unaffordable rents—and that has not improved in five years. California renters are more likely to struggle to pay their housing costs as they age.”

The group found that older female retirees struggled the most with the high cost of housing.

“One group that is particularly hard hit is women age 75 and older who are living alone,” Justice in Aging said. “These older female renters are at particularly high risk of housing instability, with 72 [percent] rental cost burdened and 51 [percent] paying more than half of their income for housing costs.

“Women in this age group are more likely to have lost their spouse or partner. Older women have also been subjected to a lifetime of reduced earnings due to the gender wage gap and interruptions from the workforce for caregiving.”

With women outlasting men with on average and with diminished earnings, older female retirees find themselves struggling.

“Older women, who are living longer on average than men, are living on a low, fixed retirement income, and have exhausted their savings,” Justice in Aging said.