By Patrick Moreno, VoiceWaves Beat Reporter | Thousands of families here are being financially stretched to their breaking point due to rental costs that are out of sync with what the average resident can afford, according to recently released city data — and the job outlook over the next seven years doesn’t suggest that will change anytime soon.
Figures collected in 2012 show that 46.7 percent of renters in Long Beach – that amounts to 130,000 people — spend more than one-third of their income on rent, leaving families to choose every month between necessities like food, medical expenses and utility bills.
A disproportionate number of renters in this category are people of color, according to the numbers that were published by Long Beach Community Database, a public service project developed by ReThinking Greater Long Beach, a community-based think tank and hosted online by Claremont Graduate University.