|
UNITED WAY OF CONNECTICUT | |
Last week Connecticut United Ways released the 2023 ALICE report on what it takes to make ends meet in Connecticut, based on data that reflect the true, regional costs of living in 2021. The report offers an important opportunity to understand who in Connecticut is struggling and why, and the specific ways COVID-19 has impacted our economy. In this newsletter we highlight the impact of this data, as we unpack key findings. |
| |
|
At a press conference last week at the Legislative Office Building, Connecticut United Ways joined elected officials, nonprofit leaders and families to share the findings of the 2023 ALICE Report, a data-driven, comprehensive research report that provides a look at financial hardship for households across Connecticut that are ALICE – Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.
The report shows that:
-
Financial hardship continues to grow in Connecticut – 39% of Connecticut households (552,710) had income below the ALICE Threshold of Financial Survival in 2021, more than 54,000 additional households compared to 2019.
-
The problem is a mismatch between wages and the cost of basics – 43% of cashiers (a common occupation in Connecticut) were below the ALICE Threshold (the bare minimum cost of essentials) in 2021. Earning a median wage of $13.80/hour, these workers could not even afford a Household Survival Budget ($16.56/hour) for one person employed full-time.
|  | -
Racial and gender disparities persist – a result of multiple factors including persistent racism, gender discrimination and geographic barriers.
|
-
Pandemic-related enhancements to federal benefits have expired, increasing the strain – In 2021, the enhanced federal Child Tax Credit and Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit contributed $15,204 to the household budget of two working adults with one infant and one toddler.
-
The rising costs of household essentials are putting financial stability further out of reach – With the cost of basics climbing higher and ALICE wages failing to keep up, workers have lost buying power. With a projected 18.2% rate of inflation, the costs of basics statewide in 2023 could be as high as $126,000 for a family of four and $39,000 for a single adult.
Click below to learn more.
|
| |
|
HADASSAH VELEZ
Single Mom, Manchester CT
| |
|
Hadassah works full time and is the proud mom of a two-year-old daughter. Hadassah is ALICE – she works very hard but is still falling behind. She feels compelled to share her story because “it feels good to be a voice for people.” She shares:
“Toddlers grow so fast. My daughter always needs new clothes, new shoes. I could save some money by cooking and take that time, but sometimes I just want to spend that time with my daughter because I’m working so much, so I’ll choose to get fast food, something quick to eat, because I work so much to pay bills.
When I tally up my cost of living and all my expenses (rent, insurance, utility bills, wipes, diapers), by the time I pay everything, I’m left with $51 at the end of the month. And with $51, if my car breaks down, I can’t cover the cost. The cost of living is a mental burden for me. What am I going to do? Do I choose to buy toilet paper this month – I have two rolls, let’s stretch that, or do I start saving up to fix my car? Or to get an oil change? It can be draining – I am living to pay bills and not living to live. And that’s no way to live.”
Hadassah courageously shares her story because she feels that a lot of people can relate to her experiences and what she goes through. She also shares “with hope of something being done that will bring ease to families like my own, and to others who have more kids than me, or make less than me.”
Hadassah has a challenge for us: “I encourage others to speak out to bring awareness to the importance of financial hardship so that others don’t have to go through what I do.”
Want to share your story? Email [email protected].
|
| |
|
|
Tuesday, February 27, 12:00PM
Virtual Conversation with MATTHEW DESMOND – Poverty Abolitionist, Pulitzer Prize Winner and Bestselling Author
| |
“Tens of millions of Americans do not end up poor by a mistake of history or personal conduct. Poverty persists because some wish and will it to.” —Matthew Desmond | |
|
Steven is the Executive Director at the Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity & Opportunity, which is an agency of the CT General Assembly. We are fortunate that he is also a member of the United Way of Connecticut Board of Directors.
At the Commission, he works to inform and engage all policy makers about constituent needs for women, children and their families, seniors and the African American, Asian Pacific-American, Latino and Puerto Rican populations in Connecticut. He and the Commission are proud to continue the legacy of lifting the voices of the under accessed and under resourced people in the state, who are also underrepresented in decision-making.
Steven is passionate about working to eliminate disparities by identifying opportunities, building connections and promoting change at the state and local level. His undergraduate degree, early career focused on international human rights, law school experience in Washington D.C. and a judicial clerkship taught him about dichotomy and the sharp divides between those that have and can marshal resources, and those that are excluded from the economy and decision making. The judge mentored him on the impact that our own laws, policies and spending decisions have on the lives of people that struggle “right down the road.” He shares, that this “galvanized my desire to devote my career to public service. I’ve been doing so ever since.”
| |
“ALICE helps us more deeply understand the universality of financial hardship, and the impact that legacies of gender and racial bias continue to have on our society.” | |
|
Steven explains that “many of the systems and institutions that we continue to operate under were designed to exclude women and people of color, and in many ways the long-term impacts of that exclusion remain.
The disaggregated data in the ALICE report, linked with the lived experience of everyday people, show us how and where to invest for maximum impact. ALICE also teaches us that even those who can escape poverty may still struggle to make ends meet. Finally, ALICE data allows us to confront, and perhaps break, comfortable narratives about why people are living in poverty, and to better understand how difficult it is to succeed despite individual and collective best efforts, or well-intentioned policies that fall short.”
| |
“Anti-poverty and ALICE-informed policy works best when it does more than meet people where they are, but instead meets people where they dream. Equity is the launching point to the American dream, which is then fueled by opportunity.” | |
|
Steven says that policies and practices that reflect both equity and opportunity come closer to providing a framework for ensuring multigenerational cycles of family and community success.
Personally, Steven is a native of downtown Chicago, with maternal roots in South Texas. He shares that he “fell in love with New England twice: first, as a college student at Bennington College in Vermont, and then after meeting my partner, Bruce (a CT native), while I was living and working in Washington, DC. With our little Yorkie, Baxter, we now call Manchester, CT home. Travel, theater, music, family, and friends make our world go ‘round!”
| | |
- ALICE is us, our friends, neighbors, coworkers and family members. We lean on ALICE for support; yet, many ALICE households are one emergency away from a financial crisis impacting their ability to feed their families, heat their homes, maintain their houses and ensure their medical care. For a growing number of U.S. households, financial stability is nothing more than a pipe dream, no matter how hard they work.
- ALICE lives in our rural, suburban and urban communities. 80% of Connecticut towns have at least 1 in 5 households that are ALICE.
|  | |
ALICE households:
- Span all races, ages, ethnicities and abilities, though households of color are disproportionately ALICE.
- Include workers whose wages cannot keep up with the rising cost of goods and services.
- Often include those who are working two or more jobs and still cannot pay their bills.
- Include family members who need care and assistance, which makes it harder for their caregivers to find adequate work.
- Live paycheck to paycheck and are forced to make impossible choices: pay the rent or buy food, receive medical care or pay for child care, pay utility bills or put gas in the car.
- Are part of every community nationwide and are part of our Connecticut community.
|
| | | |
