San Luis Obispo - Caltrans - State of California

SAN LUIS OBISPO REGION
COORDINATED HUMAN SERVICES-PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION PLAN
basis of a set of money income thresholds that vary by family size and composition. When a
family’s income is less than the threshold for a family of that size and type, then that family and
every individual in it is considered to be in poverty. These thresholds do not vary
geographically. 5 The San Luis Obispo region’s proportion of 9 percent of persons at poverty
levels is below the statewide mean of 13.3 percent and the comparable national mean of 13
percent for the United States as a whole. 6
Disability Characteristics The second population group of interest is persons with disabilities.
A disability is characterized by 2000 Census as persons with difficulty performing selective
activities of daily living. While the 2000 Census has a number of variables related to disability
status, this analysis uses the “go outside the home” disability, a self-reported characteristic that
is likely to impact mobility outside the home. The U.S. Census Bureau classification of this
disability includes those who because of a physical, mental or emotional condition lasting 6
months or more, have difficulty going outside the home alone to shop or to medical
appointments. For San Luis Obispo County this represented 2 percent of the total population of
adult’s ages 16 – 64 or 5,909 persons. For those ages 65 and over, this was another 2 percent
of the total population, 5,316 seniors and 15 percent of the senior population.
Persons with disabilities and persons of low income represent some overlap but also some
difference. The Census Bureau documents that presence of a disability is associated with lower
levels of income. In other studies, the Census Bureau reported that those with a low (less than
half the median) relative income nationally, were 13.3 percent among those with no disability,
30.4 percent among those with any disability and 42.2 percent among those with a severe
disability. 7 Hence individuals with these characteristics are best represented in Table 3-11.
Senior Characteristics The senior population has a variety of characteristics of interest to this
discussion. The individuals over age 65 in the 2000 census numbered 35,679 or 14 percent of
the total San Luis Obispo County population. This is above the statewide average of 12
percent. Low-income seniors, defined by income in relation to household size, are 1 percent of
the total county population and represent 6 percent of the senior population, age 65 and older.
Seniors with disabilities were also identified in the 2000 census, a self-reported category and
reflecting the individual’s perception. Five percent of seniors characterized themselves as
disabled or 12,897 persons.
A third group of potentially vulnerable seniors are those who are older than 75 years of age and
those who are older than 85 years of age. Advanced age is associated with increased rates of
disability. 8 About 13,393 seniors are between the ages of 75 and 84, representing 38 percent of
the total county senior population and another 4,266 aged 85 and older, representing 12 percent
of the county senior population San Luis Obipso region seniors 85+ are above the California
state proportion of 35.5 percent seniors age 85+, comprising 11.6 percent of the state’s seniors.
The physiology of aging identifies age 75 as the age point at which the natural effects of the
aging processes are increasingly likely to impinge upon lifestyle, health status and general wellbeing.
This is not to say that every 75 year-old is going to have difficulty getting around. But it
5 U.S. Bureau of the Census, Income, Earnings and Poverty Data from the 2005 American Community
Survey. B.H Webster, A. Bishaw. Washington, DC, August 2006, p. 20.
6 Income, Earnings and Poverty Data from the 2005 American Community Survey, p. 22.
7 Current Population Reports, Series P23-194, Population Profile of the United States, 1997. p. 32.
8 U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Series P23-194, Population Profile of the
United States, 1997. Washington DC, 1998, p. 50-51.
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OCTOBER 2007