ALICE is your customer, church family, neighbor, even your family, and friends. ALICE is an acronym for households that are Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. The people that fall into ALICE are working people you see every day; social workers, cashiers, home health aides, bank tellers, receptionists, and police officers.
The ALICE Project is a study conducted by The United Way to shed light on the growing percentage of Louisiana households that earn more than the Federal Poverty Level, but less than is necessary to afford necessities such as housing, food, child care, health care, food, cell phone, taxes, and transportation.
According to United Way of Northwest Louisiana’s website, the original ALICE report was released in January 2016, with an additional update in 2017. The newest report was released in January 2019 with updated data sources from 2014-2016. Broken down by parish the latest report shows that the number of under the poverty level and ALICE households are increasing in Winn Parish and across the state.
The ALICE breakdown in Winn Parish reveals that the median household income is $32,063. With 5,440 households in the parish, 1,632 (30%) are considered ALICE and 1,469 (27%) fall under the poverty level ($24,300 for a family of four.) The household survival budget for a family of four (two adults, one infant, one preschooler) in Winn Parish is $50,532 according to the ALICE Report that sites U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Labor and Statistics, Internal Revenue Service, Tax Foundation and Louisiana Department of Education as its information sources.
The report shows a household survival budget that reflects the bare minimum that a household needs to live and work today. This budget does not include savings, so these individuals and families are not able to save for the future and are one emergency away from disaster. The reason so many households struggle according to the report is the cost of living continues to increase and wages do not.
For more information see the full ALICE report here.