The chart shows that it is not just "poor" elders who are struggling in San Deigo County:

• The average Social Security payment of $12,255 is not enough to live on, and yet, one out of three seniors in California rely exclusively on Social Security to cover their basic costs.
• Women--even those few fortunate enough to have a pension in addition to Social Security--who rent or who own a home with a mortgage, can not meet their expenses.
• Men, with a pension in addition to Social Security and other sources of unearned income, who own their own homes but are still paying off a mortgage, fall short of the Elder Standard Index.
• Public supports are supposed to help close the gap between seniors' income and their expenses, but many elders fall through the cracks:  access to these supports is based on an unrealistically low assessment of what it costs to live, the $10,210 Federal Poverty Line.
• SSI, the program designed to help the most vulnerable population - the  blind, aged, and disabled -- puts them hovering right above the FPL, but far below what it really costs to make ends meet, according to the Elder Standard.