The face of poverty in Los Angeles

Life for Bradley D'Aunoy of North Hills is all about making sense of numbers: 1,375, 971, 404. Tony Castro in the Daily News.

He has to raise his family of seven on a $1,375 monthly disability check. And when he pays his mortgage of $971, he is left with $404 to feed, clothe and take care of himself, his wife, a 16-year-old daughter and four grandchildren who live with them.

"It's hell trying to make ends meet," said D'Aunoy, 48, a former studio animatronics and robotics machinist down on his luck. "All you can do is sit there and wonder if you can cover the next bill."

D'Aunoy is among the poorest of the poor in the San Fernando Valley and part of the poverty equation in California, where Census Bureau data released Tuesday showed that nearly 4.6 million Californians, or almost 13 percent, had incomes below the federal poverty line in 2007, up from about 4.4 million the previous year.