Santa Ana Population Statistics More than 21% of the population falls below the federal poverty line. More than 161,000 residents are part of the civilian workforce. As mentioned above, the city is home to the corporate and regional headquarters of many large companies. California's 10 lowest-income ZIP codes ranged from farmworker communities in Tulare and Riverside counties to impoverished urban neighborhoods in Los Angeles and Fresno counties.
The list also includes three Marine Corps stations (Twentynine Palms, Camp Pendleton and Miramar Air Station), perhaps because combat pay is not taxable. Potentially Unhealthy Lead Levels in Low-Income, Latino-Predominantly Latino Neighborhoods in Santa Ana, New Report Finds. Enayda Morales and her family arrived in the United States from Mexico five years ago, attracted by a dream to one of the largest gateways for immigrants in Southern California. Researchers Say This May Be the New Emerging Face of Poverty in U.S.
Slums. Urban poverty has traditionally been defined by abandoned homes and businesses, rising unemployment, and rampant homelessness in cities such as Cleveland; Detroit; Gary, Ind. But in a study due Monday, Santa Ana topped a list that ranks “urban hardship” among the largest cities in the country. Weighing a variety of social and economic indicators, researchers at the Nelson A.
Rockefeller concluded that Santa Ana, where most people have a roof over their heads and manufacturing jobs have been added, was the nation's hardest place to survive. As in Los Angeles and Fresno, which ranked ninth and eighth respectively on the list of difficulties, the quality of life in Santa Ana is determined by a large number of Latin American immigrants who work multiple jobs, sleep on sofas and struggle with high housing costs and lack of education. Nathan, the director of the institute, said he was surprised to see Santa Ana at the top of the list. Living in Santa Ana is difficult in large part because it's not cheap.
Torres is among the nearly 20% of Santa Ana residents living below the federal poverty level despite an unemployment rate (6.6% in July) that was slightly higher than California's rate. Candelario Tapia, 53, knows this very well. Tapia shines shoes in downtown Santa Ana from 8 in the morning. Every night, he works four hours as a janitor.
On Saturdays and Sundays, park cars 11 hours a day. At his shoeshine stand, Tapia surrounds himself with the work of local artists he has come to know. Mexican romantic songs come out of your radio. He smiles as he talks about his long days polishing the shod well.
The yellow boundaries represent the central cities within the metropolitan area. Torres, 53, works six hours a day, six days a week handing out flyers in downtown Santa Ana for a low-cost prenatal service that serves immigrants. The impetus was a detailed investigation of the lead crisis in Santa Ana by former ThinkProgress research reporter Yvette Cabrera. The city with the highest hardship index, which evaluates factors such as unemployment, low education and income levels and density, was Santa Ana, according to data from 2000.
The Urban Institute, for example, estimates that up to a quarter of Santa Ana's population could be undocumented immigrants. In his home state of Aguascalientes, Mexico, Tapia worked long hours as a bus driver, earning much less money than him after 14 years in Santa Ana. For the research series, Cabrera found hazardous lead levels after analyzing more than 1,000 soil samples from homes and other public areas around Santa Ana. They may have three or four jobs to survive, but they are employed, said Patti Nunn, the city's economic development manager, who notes that 1,200 new jobs have been added to Santa Ana's central industrial zone in the past four years.
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