i think porverty is more related to the rising prices of housing , and its specially expansive in CA.
Average minimum salary workers cant afford decent houses, or even a rent ed appartment some times more than 1000$ a month,
Its a problem seen in a lot of countries.
The pandemic sored the price of everything , and its not any politics that did that , stop blaming governments ,
red blue demos or repub , tories or libs no one could controls the inflation its world economics .
i think also in US if you dont have insurance and get sick you could ruin yourself to get threated then you can easily loose everything and end up in the streets.
When people are in misery they often start doing drugs to forget then they fall in a no end hole .
i know its a shock in a supposed rich country , but when you dont have any or few middle class , there is a big divide between rich and poor.