Meet ALICE
ALICE represents those who are working but are unable to afford the basic necessities of housing, food, child care, health care, and transportation. ALICE is your child care worker, the cashier at your supermarket, the salesperson at your big box store, a home health aide, an office clerk.
ALICE workers educate our children, keep us healthy, and make our quality of life possible, yet do not earn enough to support their own families. ALICE households are forced to make tough choices, such as deciding between quality child care or paying the rent, which have long-term consequences not only for ALICE, but for us all.
In 2018, 45% of Northern New York’s households struggled to make ends meet.
While 16% of these households were living below the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), another 29% — nearly twice as many — were ALICE. These households earned above the FPL, but not enough to afford basic household necessities.
We know the COVID-19 pandemic and hardships it has created have caused more families to become ALICE and have made life even tougher for those who were already ALICE.
United Way’s ALICE Report provides better measures and language to describe the population that is struggling financially, and the reasons why. These measurements provide a broader picture of financial insecurity than traditional federal poverty guidelines.
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