Report shows effects of insufficient income

MIDDLETOWN — Imagine having to decide if paying the heating and housing bills are more important than paying for this week’s food. Imagine having to consider leaving a decent job because it costs more to ensure your children are being supervised in a safe environment than you earn in a week.

These challenges are real, and more of our neighbors experience this daily than we may know. These tough choices are a reality for the 38 percent of Connecticut households that are unable to afford the ALICE household survival budget ($22,656 for a single adult; $70,788 for a family of four), a barebones budget that covers just the essentials: food, housing, child care, transportation and health care.

ALICE, a United Way acronym for asset-limited income-constrained employed, represents individuals and households who are working but have difficulty affording necessities. In 2014, Connecticut United Ways and Rutgers University developed the first ALICE report after completing studies on this hidden population.

ALICE households in Connecticut make up about 27 percent of all households in the state, in addition to the 11 percent of Connecticut households who are in poverty. In Middlesex County, 22 percent of households are ALICE, and 8 percent are in poverty.

In 2017, the ALICE research team released an updated report, The Consequences of Insufficient Household Income, which covers the choices and consequences that families make in each of the five essential areas of a household budget (food, housing, child care, transportation and health care).

The study takes an indepth look at how each financial decision in one of these areas often impacts the other areas. This report helps to tell the ALICE story, and I now invite you to take a walk in ALICE’s shoes to understand the struggle of thousands of your coworkers, neighbors, family members and friends.

Imagine for a moment you are one of the thousands of ALICE individuals in our state. Half of the jobs in Connecticut pay less than $20 per hour, but to afford a modest twobedroom apartment in Connecticut without spending more than 30 percent or more of your income on housing, you must earn $24.72 per hour. So what do ALICE households do when they cannot afford basic housing? Some options they are left to decide is to pay more for housing than their budget allows, meaning having less money available for other basic needs and savings.

They can rent or buy in less desirable locations, seek rental assistance, rent or purchase substandard apartments or homes resulting in high maintenance costs, exposure to physical and health risks, borrow at high rates to buy a house or lose a home to foreclosure. All of these possibilities are unfavorable, but often the only option.

Child care accounts for 28 percent of ALICE’s survival budget. For ALICE families in Connecticut, it is difficult to afford high-quality child care for their children, resulting in lower quality education. ALICE families aren’t left with many options and often spend a much higher percentage of their income on child care. They can choose less expensive child care options, sacrificing quality in early care and education, or pay more for care than their family budget allows, making it far harder to budget the remaining monthly expenses.

With these two financial challenges addressed, then it comes to deciding how to feed family. Almost half a million Connecticut residents struggle with hunger and are considered food insecure. In all, 42 percent of the 437,530 individuals in Connecticut that are food insecure earn too much to be eligible for SNAP or other public nutrition programs, requiring them to make trade-offs between important basic needs, such as housing or medical bills.

They are forced to eat less food and less healthy food, potentially negatively affecting their health. They can seek food assistance; however, eligibility limits prevent many ALICE families from accessing food assistance.

Once all of these expenses are covered, how can ALICE families afford to get to and from work? There is very limited transportation in Connecticut, making owning a car almost a requirement. In fact, less than 5 percent of Connecticut workers report using public transportation to get to work in 2015. Without one, it’s difficult to get to work, shop for food or transport kids to child care, school and other activities.

If an ALICE family is unable to afford transportation, they will have to decide to forgo money for other necessities, minimize their car expenses, resulting in disruption of work schedules, choosing a school solely based off location, and limiting food choices. ALICE families sometimes go without valid insurance, registration and unpaid fines, which results in disruptions in day-today transportation due to penalties and suspensions.

The most concerning thing to consider is that ALICE families are faced to make difficult decisions regarding health care. ALICE families face a range of circumstances that make it difficult for them to achieve and maintain good health, often overlapping from their other struggles, such as not having enough food, living in dilapidated housing, being unemployed and stressed. ALICE households often have difficulty affording health insurance premiums, deductibles, copays, and most forgo health care and live with health problems.

ALICE workers are key members of our community: They are our mechanics, administrative assistants, child care providers, etc. We depend on ALICE, and when ALICE struggles, it affects us all. ALICE families are just one financial emergency away from losing their homes, jobs, and falling into crippling medical and financial debt.

Connecticut United Way’s fund and advocate for long-term policy solutions that can lead to more financial security for ALICE families in your community.

Hearst Connecticut Media file photo Preschoolers work on a word puzzle during class. Low-income families in Connecticut find it difficult to afford high-quality child care. That leads to lower quality education for their children, according to the Middlesex United Way.