Amita Sharma | KPBS

Amid high unemployment and hot weather, boosters are pitching affordable housing, a big labor force and the region's potential to be a renewable energy hub as selling points, meanwhile, like other places in the state, local workers try to patch together a living in the gig economy.

Over the last year, the city has experimented with sending rental checks to nearly two dozen seniors and now wants to expand the program exponentially.

It all comes down to how expensive it is to live in California.

When one elderly Santa Monica woman barely getting by on Social Security got some help from the city, she was excited she could give $10 to the homeless man across the street. Would you do the same?

As senior homelessness spikes in some parts of the state amid a shortage of affordable housing, Santa Monica is trying out rental subsidies to help keep its seniors off the streets.

One in five seniors in California live in poverty. Conditions are more dire for women.