United Way presents ‘Struggling to Get By’

United Way of Stanislaus County will present a talk on the challenges of living with less at 2 p.m. Nov. 17 at Memorial Medical Center’s conference center.

The speaker will be Henry Gascon, one of the authors of “Struggling to Get By: The Real Cost Measure in California 2015.” Gascon is manager of program and policy development for the United Ways of California.

The study, released in July, presents a financial stability report measuring the true cost of living in California communities, using a basic needs budget approach. These basic needs include the cost of housing, child care, transportation, food, health care, miscellaneous expenses and more.

By that measure, 31 percent of California households do not earn enough to meet basic needs, the study found. The federal measure considers 23 percent of the state’s households to be living in poverty under its supplemental poverty measures that found the Golden State tops every other state in percentage of its people living without enough to get by.

Gascon will discuss what the basic needs approach, called the Real Cost Measure, looks like in the Central Valley, and the challenges low-income households have to face to get by. Through the lens of race, gender and geography, the study found single mothers, households of color, households with young children and seniors particularly face hardship.

The two-hour, free presentation will also address solutions to strengthen well-being in the Central Valley. Stanislaus County data will be shared at the event.

This story was originally published November 8, 2015 at 7:13 PM with the headline "United Way presents ‘Struggling to Get By’."