Article Ann Huff Stevens

California’s Rich-Poor Gap: The Reality May Surprise You
Director Ann Huff Stevens quoted in KQED News

KQED News, August 11, 2016

Where in California has the gap between rich and poor grown most since the Great Recession?

The Bay Area, home of your Zuckerbergs and Steyers and some of the most expensive zip codes in the country, seems like a logical answer. Over the past decade, what other part of California has minted as many members of the “1 percent” as Silicon Valley?

Those California regions with the biggest chasm between rich and poor typically have some of the poorest populations in the state. In the Central Valley, for example, households in the bottom 10 percent of the income distribution made less than $10,000 per year (adjusted for a family of four). Their equivalents in the Bay Area made more than double that.

“When you’re talking incomes that low, you’re likely talking about people who work in agriculture and who really have highly variables incomes because they’re not at a traditional job,” says Ann Stevens, director of the UC Davis Center for Poverty Research. “Or they may be doing temporary work or field work or running a small agricultural business.”

Read the full article at KQED News.