Child poverty worsens in L.A. County

As housing costs spiral out of reach for working-class families, child poverty is on the rise across Los Angeles County, according to a report released on Thursday.

This is a reversal of a long term downward trend, according to this year's Children's ScoreCard, released every two years by the Los Angeles County Children's Planning Council.

An estimated three-quarters of the county's more than 1.2 million households with children, struggle economically, said the report.

The living cost has increased more than 40 percent since 1999, as the county's median wage inched up to 15.28 U.S. dollars per hour last year.

Many parents are forced to live in less safe but more affordable neighborhoods where several families are jammed into a single residence, and must work on several jobs to pay the rent.

Just 14 percent of the county's households could afford a house in 2005, compared with 50 percent nationwide, and while 11 percent of Westside rental units are overcrowded, two-thirds of rentals in some areas like Bell Gardens, South El Monte and Lennox are packed with too many residents.

As a result, children suffer as they grow up in low-income households.African-American children are more likely to be born underweight or with asthma, or be arrested, than their peers of other ethnic groups.

There are more Latino children coming from low-income families than any other group, who have the least-educated parents and are the worst-prepared for college. Asian youngsters on the other hand perform best education-wise, while white children are better off economically.

"There's a strong correlation between race and how well kids are doing across the county," Flores Aguilar said.

She emphasized the "ripple effects" of poverty, which can undermine a child's health, performance at school, and eventual success as an adult.

Although more children than ever - 92 percent - are insured, the number of underweight babies has been steadily climbing since 2000, the report said.

Source: Xinhua