San Antonio’s poverty rate increased to 20 percent last year, the highest since 2014 and surpassing the state rate by 5 percentage points, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Median household income dropped to $49,024, a sharp decline from $51,157, adjusted for inflation, in 2017. It was the lowest amount since 2014, and $11,605 less than the state’s 2018 median income of $60,629.

The percentage of people in San Antonio without health insurance increased to 17.1 percent last year from 16.5 percent in 2017. That tracked with the trend in Texas — 17.7 percent uninsured in 2018, up from 17.3 percent. That is more than double the U.S. rate of 8.5 percent last year.

The one-year estimates were released Wednesday by the Census Bureau.

The Alamo City’s poverty rate remains higher than Texas’ — 14.9 percent — and the U.S. — 11.8 percent.

“That’s not surprising,” Erna Baker, the director of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church’s food bank, said in reaction to the new estimates. “We serve about 100 people each Wednesday. ... We have seen up to 250 people coming some Wednesdays. Sometimes it’s homeless people, other times it’s young people struggling or the elderly.”

Other estimates from the Census Bureau reflect the reality some people in San Antonio face: 15.5 percent of households relied on food stamps in 2018, and more than 10 percent of households have incomes below $10,000 a year.

On ExpressNews.com: More people going without health insurance

The high poverty rate has barely budged in recent years despite economic gains and low unemployment in San Antonio. It reached 21 percent in 2014.

The rate “is moving in the wrong direction,” said Lloyd Potter, a professor and director of the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Institute for Demographic and Socioeconomic Research. “It is a pretty sizable shift for a city such as San Antonio.”

Maria Villagomez walked away from the church’s food pantry Wednesday clutching two paper bags filled with fresh produce, meat and cheese.

It was her second time getting food there.

Villagomez, 34, said as her four children, who range from 6 to 16, get older, visiting the food pantry has become a necessity.

“Things add up — food, toilet paper, clothes, pads, diapers,” she said. “Then, even with a low income, your rent is still raised, electricity costs more … it can be a lot,” said Villagomez, who has relied on disability benefits since 2006.

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Rosa Linda Rodriguez, 58, said she has had to depend on the church’s food pantry for three years — ever since she lost her job as a certified nursing assistant after an injury to her leg.

“I never got unemployment,” she said. She and a companion live on about $2,000 a month, “but we pay mortgage, insurance, cars, shopping, have grand kids and all that,” she said.

Baker handed Rodriguez a bag of groceries and chocolate sheet cake. She was one of the lucky handful of people selected to get a cake. She beamed looking at it

“Any little bit helps,” she said.

sara.cline@express-news.net