Living without a safety net
United Way study shows 38% in Lehigh Valley teeter on the edge of disaster
Ryan Freeman is the pleasant and soft-spoken ringmaster of a small circus of children, whose infectious hilarity softened the edges of their father’s story when he shared it one gray afternoon at New Bethany Ministries in Bethlehem.
It was, in its essence, one of those “there but for the grace of God” narratives you hear all the time at the region’s homeless shelters and food pantries. A young man embarks on life, has children, does his level best and is hit by out-of-nowhere setbacks and reversals that leave him a single father without a home.
The particulars of Freeman’s story are deeply personal and irrelevant to the broader point, which is that the 30-year-old Phillipsburg native’s family — like roughly 1 in 4 families in the greater Lehigh Valley, according to a new report from the United Way — had been living precariously in a socioeconomic bracket defined by an acronym: ALICE.
It stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.
The United Way coined the term as a more exact, and less condescending, description of people known as “the working poor” — families whose income exceeds the federal poverty level, but who remain cashstrapped. Sometimes they are forced into agonizing decisions: Pay the electric bill or fill a prescription for a sick child?
“Overall, I’m afloat,” said Mishawn Roberts, a 30-year-old
single mother from Bethlehem — her son is 4 — who works part time for Catholic Charities at the Chew Street Community Center in Allentown and supplements her income driving for the Uber and Lyft ride-sharing services. “But I’m afloat in a way that’s paycheck to paycheck.”
It’s an unnerving way to live. “People are just one catastrophe away from it spiraling to something significant,” said Marci Lesko, executive vice president of the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley. The local agency serves Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon counties, providing financial and logistical support in four key areas: education, food access, emergency services and healthy aging.
Tracking the ALICE population began in 2009 as a United Way pilot program in Morris County, New Jersey, and has expanded to 20 states.
The United Way of Pennsylvania, with the support of the Lehigh Valley agency and other statewide United Ways, generated its first ALICE report this year.
It’s a distressing read. It shows, for example, that 38% of households in the greater Lehigh Valley — a combination of ALICE-level and povertylevel — struggle to afford basic needs.
In Lehigh County in 2017, 11% of households were at or below federal poverty level, which is defined as an annual income of $12,060 for an individual and $24,600 for a family of four. Another 25% qualified as ALICE, earning too much money for government benefits but far too little to be secure.
In Northampton County, the 2017 numbers were similar — 9% were below poverty level, 30% at ALICE level. And in Carbon County, 11% were below poverty level, 32% at Alice level
Statewide, 24% of households are at ALICE level and 13% at poverty level.
The report exposes startling economic gaps. For example, the median household incomes in Lehigh County and Northampton County are about $61,000 and $66,000 respectively.
But a “survival budget” for a family of four — two adults, an infant and a preschooler — is $64,800 in Lehigh County and $67,400 in Northampton County, according to United Way.
The financial stability threshold for the same family — meaning the ability to save a significant amount of money for tuition and retirement and absorb unexpected expenses — is more than $105,000 in Lehigh County and more than $106,000 in Lehigh County, the agency says.
Freeman was a warehouse worker when things started to go wrong. His wages were above the $24,600 a year threshold for poverty for a family his size but not by much. So it was a short way to homelessness.
At the recommendation of the Northampton County Department of Children, Youth and Families, he and his four children were admitted to New Bethany’s Transitional Housing Program.
It gave them a place to stay while Freeman struggled back. He found a job as a sous-chef for a catering company. In keeping with the program’s rules, he puts 30% of his income into savings to create a financial cushion.
Before long, he will move into Bethlehem public housing — his application was just approved — and continue on his way back to a normal life. He is already entertaining the idea of opening a barbecue joint, or maybe a food truck.
“I had a lot of doubt,” Freeman said, tearing up a little as he recalled the early days of his hard times. “But everyone here reassured me.”
What makes Freeman’s story important to the ALICE story is that it puts a face — five faces — on the numbers. And ALICE is loaded with numbers, all of which reflect the uncertainty of life in one of the wealthiest nations in history.
The monthly household survival budget for a family of four in Northampton County, for example, includes $1,038 for housing, $1,431 for child care, $604 for food, $636 for transportation — on and on, to a total of $5,617 a month.
That translates to $67,404 a year, necessitating an hourly wage of about $32.40 based on a 40-hour work week.
“I think the precariousness is something people need to be aware of,” said Lesko, noting how something like a car breakdown can send an ALICE household into a full-blown budget crisis.
That very thing happened to Mishawn Roberts, whose recent car troubles left her unable to earn from Lyft and Uber for a time.
“I got in arrears in my rent,” she said. “I have a landlord who works with me. If I had a landlord who didn’t, I might have been evicted.”
That so many people have to work multiple jobs to stay afloat troubles Roberts. She said she is pursuing advanced education and is taking other steps to move out of the ALICE bracket, but knows not everyone can do the same.
“I don’t feel like people should have to work like this,” she said. “I don’t feel like the way we work as a society nurtures the human soul.”
Lesko said the ALICE data will give area employers and nonprofit assistance agencies a stronger foundation in crafting policies to help people who make up a huge portion of the labor force.
Day care. Continuing education. Workforce development. Financial training. All of these things, whether provided by employers or community agencies, can help alleviate some of the threats to ALICE households.
The report is more than a bird’s-eye view. It gives a close look at the communities in the
Valley. In Northampton County, for example, the percentage of households in the ALICE/poverty category ranges from 21% in Lower Nazareth Township to 60% in Wind Gap.
Other high percentages include Easton (58%) and Bangor (56%).
Likewise, the percentages in Lehigh County range from 18% in Upper Saucon Township to 58% in Allentown.
“Certain parts of a community can have higher concentrations of ALICE families, and that should tell us something about how we can better align resources,” Lesko said. “We can get more sophisticated about it.”
And that would be a blessing for people like Ryan Freeman, looking to the future once again as his children swarmed over his knees. The hope is that he can move out of poverty, back into ALICE status and, eventually, beyond into stability.
“I want them to be happy,” he said.
“I don’t feel like people should have to work like this. I don’t feel like the way we work as a society nurtures the human soul.” — Mishawn Roberts