Liberty County Development Authority members got an eye-opening report Monday on the struggles many local families face.
Leia Didic, chief impact officer for the United Way of the Coastal Empire, presented the ALICE findings to authority members at their monthly meeting. ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, describing those who are working and above the poverty line but are still struggling financially.
“Inflation hits this group harder,” Didic said. “They typically have little or no savings. They’re usually earning too much for public assistance but they are still experiencing financial hardship. This allows us to know who is struggling financially.”
LCDA CEO Brynn Grant, who was CEO of the United Way of the Coastal Empire, is a proponent of the United for ALICE. She served as co-chair for the United Ways of Georgia ALICE effort.
“As we move through planning, we will be using this data to influence our decision making,” Grant said.
Didic told LCDA members that under ALICE, there is determined to be a household survival budget and a stability budget. The survival budget reflects the minimum costs of household necessities, including housing, child care, food, transportation, health care and technology. The stability budget estimates higher costs, including housing and food, and has a 10% savings set aside from its budget.
According to the United Way’s ALICE data, pulled from the Census information and the Federal Reserve Board’s, 48%, or 1.9 million households, in Georgia are below the ALICE threshold. While the percentage of those below the poverty level across the state has fallen to 13%, the number of families who are below the ALICE threshold is 35%.
For 2022, 55% of Liberty County’s 24,023 households were above the ALICE threshold. That number was 62% in Bryan County and 60% in Effingham County. Liberty County had 43% of its households above the ALICE threshold – meaning 57% were at or below – in 2021, but the influx of 2,000 new households shifted the numbers.
“Which is really pretty significant for our county,” Grant said.
For a Liberty County family of four – two adults and two children in child care – the survival budget is put at around $77,600 a year. For a stability budget, the same family needs $121,000 a year.
The numbers vary from county to county too. For instance, the survival budget for the same family in Emanuel County is $67,000 and $110,000 in Forsyth County.
With the survival budget, Didic said, families are on a tight rope.
“You have no room for mistakes,” she said. “You are two flat tires away from a real emergency,” said LCDA chairman and state Rep. Al Williams.
On a stability budget, Didic added, there is room for expenses.
ALICE has four goals, Didic said, including finding ways to provide child care, providing a ready and resilient workforce, financial skills and safe and stable housing, “which as you know is a gap in our community,” she added.
An online search of housing units found that a family of four could afford turned up nothing in Bryan and Effingham counties, and four such units in Chatham.
“There might be a waiting list for affordable housing,” Didic said. “There are a lot of people competing for that survival budget rent.”
Child care, Didic said, is workforce development. Employers may start to look at it as a benefit to offer its workers.
“If we can’t employ our employees at a livable wage, they are not stable enough to be a stable workforce,” she said. “I think it has been eye-opening for our business community.”
A little more than 50,000 more households fell below the ALICE threshold from 2021 to 2022 across the state.
“So we are moving the wrong direction and it shows we have a lot of work to do,” Didic said.
ALICE data can support the United Way and its partners in their efforts to build better safety net programs and provide for upward mobility, Didic added, and “making sure those in poverty and those struggling have pathways to success.”
When it comes to employment, 65% of the top 20 jobs in Georgia, in terms of numbers of workers, pay less than $20 an hour. The median wage for retail workers is $13.21 in the state.
“We’re No. 1 for doing business,” Williams said, “and No. 48 for living.”
Didic noted efforts in other states, such as one in Arkansas that raised money to erase $1,500 in debt for ALICE families, and locally, aligning the United Way’s 211 system.
Williams cautioned that getting social safety net measures through the Legislature does not happen easily. Grant said the state’s booming economic development means the social issues cannot be separate from the business issues.
“We are seeing those in policy much more open to these messages because they know we need a healthy workforce to achieve our business goals,” she said. “We hope our legislative agenda will reflect more social related issues, especially around childcare, especially around tax credits. It’s promising that there is that kind of partnership, that kind of conversation and that willingness to work together.”