Many families still struggle despite booming Texas economy, report says
28% in Harris County earn too much for aid, too little to make ends meet
Dionicio Diaz, 76, and his wife Sara, 70, live off his retirement income of $845 a month. Their rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Sharpstown is $700 a month. His latest prescription medication cost $40.
“Sometimes there isn’t enough left over to buy food,” Diaz said.
They are just one of the nearly 45 percent of households in the Sharpstown and Chinatown areas struggling to afford necessities.
But the struggle to meet basic needs extends far beyond those two Houston communities, according to a new report from the United Way.
The report released Tuesday puts those residents into a category re-
searchers call ALICE: asset limited, income constrained, and employed. That means people earn more than the federal poverty level and too much to receive public assistance to meet needs like housing, child care, food, transportation and health care. They are often just one car repair or sick child away from financial disaster, the report says.
More than 95 percent of Texas counties have at least one in five households struggling to make ends meet, according to the data. In Harris County, the rate of struggling households is about 28 percent. In Houston, it’s about 32 percent.
“They can’t make basic budget needs, let alone provide for any savings,” said Jamey Rootes, board chairman of United Way of Greater Houston and president of the Houston Texans.
For lead researcher, Stephanie Hoopes, the data represents a two-sided story: While Texas is a leading state for economic prosperity, not everyone is sharing in the success.
“The wages aren’t keeping up with the cost of living,” Hoopes said.
Paycheck to paycheck
Mohamad Khir Alakish, 40, a Syrian refugee living in Gulfton, makes about $17,000 a year as a restaurant cook. To save on child care expenses for their three children, his wife, Amal Karkoura, 33, doesn’t work. They pay $1,000 a month for a two-bedroom apartment. After tacking on $100 to $200 in energy bills, $80 for internet and $100 for phone service, before the month is done the family has little to nothing left over for savings.
“If my husband has an accident, we don’t have enough saved to pay for next month’s rent,” Karkoura said.
Alakish has tried to get a second job, but after looking at their wages, he said it still wouldn’t be enough to improve his family’s financial standing.
About 62 percent of all jobs in Texas paid less than $20 per hour in 2016, according to the United Way report.
Gulfton — which has been referred to as Houston’s Ellis Island due to the large number of newly arrived immigrants and refugees living in the area — has the second highest concentration of struggling households in the city at more than 45 percent.
The ranking doesn’t surprise Gabriela Conde, director of neighborhood initiatives at the nonprofit BakerRipley Neighborhood Center in Gulfton. By her estimates, the majority of residents in the area earn $25,000 a year or less.
“Service workers live here,” Conde said.
Over the last few decades, the nonprofit has expanded its outreach to struggling families by opening tax return centers, affordable credit unions, adult continuing education programs and food pantries. Yet more could be done, she said.
“Far too many Harris County residents are living paycheck-topaycheck and with the accompanying stress of trying to ensure that there’s food on the table every night,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said after reviewing the United Way ALICE report. “We want to help make sure they have the tools and opportunity to build economic stability.”
Hidalgo said the county is “exploring policies, like early education and housing affordability, that address the structural challenges which limit economic mobility.”
Many people forgo health care and insurance because they must prioritize daily expenses, said Jennifer Graves, an administrator with the Houston Health Department. As a result, low-income households may end up with higher medical expenses.
Diaz in Sharpstown is diabetic. A cardiac arrest last year forced him to retire from his job at a Fiesta Mart. His wife Sara, who cares for him full time, said she wishes she could make healthier food options, but money is too tight to be picky.
‘Myth’ of the lazy poor
Living as an asset limited, income constrained and employed, or ALICE, household is living in a world of trade-offs, said Anna Babin, president and chief executive officer of United Way of Greater Houston. People are forced to choose whether to live in a safe neighborhood and forgo car insurance and groceries, or stick to the cheaper, unsafe neighborhood and keep up car insurance and put food on the table.
“It’s changing the conversation about what struggling families look like,” Babin said. “There’s a myth of the lazy, undeserving poor.”
D.J. Johnson of Houston was among local residents on hand Monday when United Way officials announced the report at their Montrose headquarters.
Johnson, 26, used to struggle financially. As a student at Texas A&M, he worked multiple jobs even though he had financial aid. “Having financial aid is good, but it doesn’t necessarily provide everything you need as a college student,” he said.
It wasn’t until after he graduated and landed a job as a college adviser in the Houston Independent School District that he found stability, he said.
As a student, he didn’t meet the standards for federal poverty but didn’t have quite enough to make ends meet. He needed transportation to work, which ate up much of what he earned, he said.
“It’s tough being ALICE,” Johnson said. “You work hard each and every day, day in and day out, you show up to work with a smile every single day” and still struggle.
Like Alakish, adding another job didn’t meet Johnson’s needs.
No one solution
In many pockets of the city, struggling households accounted for more than 40 percent of the population. Smaller communities, including Piney Point Village, Bunker Hill Village and West University, fare much better with less than 10 percent of households struggling.
The long-term goal, according to researcher Hoopes, is to better inform the public about populations in need of services, including improved transportation, affordable housing options, child care and more.
“There is not one solution,” Hoopes said. “It can’t come from just the government, just the nonprofits, just corporations.”
United Way hopes that the ALICE report will not only change the dialogue about poverty, but inspire ways for nonprofits to come together and help struggling families and even spur legislation.
“Houston is thought of as the opportunity city, but the truth is it’s not the opportunity city for everyone,” Babin said. “The ALICE report quantifies what we already knew.”
At the Gulfton BakerRipley Neighborhood Center on Friday, Diaz and his wife, Sara, filled out paperwork to file their taxes for free as part of the center’s community support initiatives.
It’s programs like this that the couple say they have come to rely on as they fret over their next meal.
“What can we do,” Sara said. “It’s hard out here.”