Gilroy led the county in poverty from 2010-2014, with 16.1 percent of its residents listed as poor, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
In contrast, 9.9 percent of Santa Clara County residents were below the federal poverty level of under $16,000 for a family of two or $24,000 for a family of four. Nationally, 15.6 percent of the population is impoverished.
While it’s on par with the national average Gilroy’s poverty, however, is worse because rents aren’t figured into the national figures. And rents are so high that many can’t afford a roof over their heads.
The median monthly rent in Gilroy was $1,367 over the latest five-year period, compared with $920 nationwide.
About half of Gilroy renters paid more than 35 percent of their income on rent, compared with about 39 percent of residents across the county. About a third of Gilroy residents spent more than half their income on rent, compared with about a quarter who spent that amount across the county.
With only 2.7 percent of Santa Clara County’s population, Gilroy is home to 8.4 percent of families receiving assistance from CalWORKS, according to annual reports from the county.
“The families we serve are literally living on the edge,” said David Cox, executive director of St. Joseph’s Family Center. “They are overburdened. They are constantly struggling to make ends meet.”
Even though Gilroy’s average rents are $270 lower than in the rest of the county, families still struggle here. Successful Silicon Valley workers use Gilroy as a bedroom community said Tammy Brownlow, president of the Gilroy Economic Development Corporation.
Gilroy’s high concentration of retail and agricultural employers, which typically offer seasonal and temporary work at low wages, has left many workers unable to compete with well paid technology workers, Brownlow said.
Retail and ag sectors together accounted for 19 percent of Gilroy’s workforce in the 2010-2014 period, compared with 10.3 percent across the valley.
“Families that are working a lot of the service industry jobs that we rely on for our community to blossom and thrive, they’re getting pushed out because of the high cost of living,” Cox said.
“Our families survive here,” he added. “They don’t thrive.”
Only about 20 percent Gilroy’s work force works in town, Brownlow said. In Gilroy, 16 percent of workers traveled more than an hour to get to work, compared with 7 percent of workers throughout the valley.
The housing problem is so severe that not even free money is a reliable solution, said Jan Bernstein Chargin, board chair of the Gilroy Compassion Center, a South County agency that provides services to the homeless. Families often obtain vouchers and still fail to find affordable rent, she said.
Gilroy’s poverty problem weighs heavily on its children. In 2010-2014, roughly 25 percent of people below age 18 lived in poverty, compared with about 14 percent of people ages 18 to 64 and 10 percent of people 65 and older.Worse, those children are more often living in single-parent households. About 24 percent of Gilroy families were headed by a single parent in contrast to 18 percent nationwide and 16 percent countywide.
“We see a lot of children who have missed a lot of school, either because their families are moving around a lot, or families are spending so much time on survival,” Chargin said. “Parents are afraid they will lose custody of their children if the government finds out they are homeless.If you’re homeless, where are you going to do your homework?”
