Report: Nearly 25% of Marin Households Can'T Afford Decent Living

credit: Flickr

A family of four in Marin County, Calif., needs to make $146,087 a year to afford a decent standard of living, according to a new report from the United Ways of California.

That's nearly a quarter of the county's average household income of $44,278, the Marin Independent Journal reports.

The United Ways found that 58% of households in the state earning less than the cost of living are spending more than 30% of their income on housing.

"I think $146,000 is a little less than I would have estimated," says Beatriz Chimal, who bought a home in Novato with her husband last year and has a 7-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter.

"Housing is our biggest expense," says Chimal.

"A lot of our income goes into our mortgage."

The United Ways found that renters in Marin need to earn 3.5 times the minimum wage to afford the average asking rent.

But the state minimum wage is only $15 per hour.

Home health and personal care aides are paid $16.97 per hour.

Child care workers make $18.81 per hour.

"Housing is such a significant basic need that it drives everything else," says Robert Palmer, the director of learning and development for the nonprofit Community Action Marin, which

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