Mullin discusses raising federal poverty line

Gascon presented the equity nonprofit’s real cost measure findings, a tool that takes into account housing, food, health care, child care and transportation when measuring bare-minimum costs to live on the Peninsula and elsewhere in California.

The current federal poverty line — which qualifies individuals for a bevy of social programs like Medicaid and food aid — stands at $31,200 for a family of four, meaning only 12% of Californians are eligible.

“You can imagine the number of households who would benefit from the increase of the federal poverty line under this bill,” Mullin said. “Across the country, tens of millions of more households would gain access to the safety net.”

In California, 34% of residents — 3.7 million households — are struggling to make ends meet and could benefit from social programs, Gascon said. 28% of San Mateo County residents — 62,435 households — are underneath that same metric.

Mullin acknowledged the challenges that accompany the passage of such an ambitious bill, including gaining bipartisan support and finding funding for the social programs that would undoubtedly become available to more people.

“There is no question. If my bill were to pass, it would cost a lot more money for the federal government to administer these programs … in the current political reality, we know expanding the safety net is not exactly at the top of the Republican majorities’ to-do list,” he said.

Leadership from local nonprofits spoke on a panel with Mullin during the event last Tuesday in Redwood Shores about the cost-of-living challenges in the Bay Area and how raising the federal poverty line could benefit their clients.

Samaritan House CEO Laura Bent shared a story about one client, a single mother with three children, who works two jobs off and on after fleeing a domestic violence situation. In a paradox all to familiar for many low-income residents, once she received a raise and was able to work only one job, she lost her benefits, Bent said.

“She hits a point where she gets $37 an hour, she figures she can drop that second salary or that second job and she loses her food benefits, so she comes to Samaritan House to supplement the food,” Bent said. “Then her car gets stolen. I can’t make this stuff up. This is stuff that we hear on a regular basis — her car gets stolen.”

After her car got stolen, she was forced to Uber her children to and from school so that she could work, Bent said, thus forcing her to go back to the second job.

“Because she’s considered OK, based upon the federal poverty line, she’s losing benefits every time she makes a stride in her life,” she said.

High cost of living remains an equity issue, Gascon said during the event. About 53% of single mothers are below the real cost measure, and African Americans and Latinos are also disproportionately below the standard.

Adopting a more accurate federal poverty line would allow marginalized groups like farmworkers to use social benefits as they make financial strides, eventually reaching a more permanent stability, Coastside Hope Executive Director Judith Guerrero said.

She shared the story of her mother, a farmworker, who had to stop working one day a week to continue to qualify for benefits.

“We’re encouraging people to be financially sustainable, but at the same time … it seems that when you try to advance financially, you’re losing some of the safety nets that are helping you survive,” she said. “That’s the story of my mother. But that’s the story of many farmworkers on the coasts, not only farmworkers, but hospitality workers.”

The issue of cost of living is a national one, Mullin said, acknowledging that regional disparities remain — for comparison, it costs around $102,000 to make ends meet in Charleston, South Carolina, he said.

“Either way, $31,200 for a family of four doesn’t come anywhere close to meeting the needs,” he said. “This really is a national challenge, not just a blue state challenge. There are high-cost areas, medium-cost areas across this country, and I know families of all political stripes are struggling.”

Specific statistics for how many people the bill could help are not yet defined, which is still in its beginning stages, Mullin said.

“I’ll be the first to admit that while this bill represents what I think is a reasonable starting point, we’re really at the beginning of what I believe will be a multiyear and possibly multi-Congress effort to make this happen,” he said.