Above poverty, but below basic needs: Data shows Lebanon residents struggle to avoid 'financial ruin'
On Thursday morning, Lancaster resident Luke Thompson was straining his credit to fill his gas tank at the Sheetz on Rocherty Road. Thompson works at a nearby retailer but said most of his bi-weekly paycheck goes to room and gas.
"I mean, I've tried looking for housing closer to the city, but there's nothing that's in my price range," he said. "At least, not if I want to eat."
Even in Lebanon County, many residents are earning enough to be above the federal poverty level, but not enough to afford basic services. Many residents find themselves making impossible choices between quality health care or paying the rent.
That's why community and government leaders came to a United Way town hall in Palmyra to discuss the Asset Limited Income Constrained, Employed, or ALICE, report Thursday morning.
ALICE records household incomes which exceed the federal poverty level but are not high enough to pay for basic needs. Officials said the research data quantifies and describes the number of households that are struggling financially, while raising awareness of who those people are in local communities.
"These workers often struggle to keep their own households from financial ruin, while keeping our local communities running," Julia Krall, United Way of Lebanon County executive director, said. "ALICE households include workers whose wages cannot keep up with the rising costs of goods and services... (and) often include households working two or more jobs and cannot afford those basic household needs."
Across Lebanon County, 27% of households have at least one person employed, yet struggle to afford basic necessities including housing, utilities, food, child care and health care. Combined with the number of residents under the federal poverty line, officials said two in every five households in Lebanon County could be facing financial hardships.
Hispanic and Black households are disproportionately going to be ALICE households, according to officials. Also seniors and young people are disproportioned, according to the data.
Rebecca O'Shea, the United Way of Pennsylvania advocacy Engagement Coordinator, said that most households that fall into the ALICE population are "one emergency away from falling into poverty."
"For a household family of four, the survival budget is $69,648 to survive bare minimum," she said. "To be financially stable, it's $118,000."
Most of the data presented on Thursday was from 2018 and 2019 studies and does not take into account recent events like the COVID-19 pandemic and the inflation trends of the last year. The United Way will be releasing new reports focusing on households in 2021 starting next year.
But ALICE household numbers have been increasing over the last decade, according to O'Shea.
"We did a survey in August of 2020 and then March of 2021... to see how the pandemic was affecting households, and we saw an increase in need," she said. "We're going to assume that in our new data next year we're going to see an increase in the ALICE population especially."
The City of Lebanon, Annville Township, Myerstown and Palmyra were identified as having more than 40% of households not having incomes to pay for basic needs. That was one of the reasons the United Way hosted the townhall in Palmyra, according to Krall.
"We talk about ALICE being a hidden population, and really there are places where ALICE concentrations are higher," Krall said. "Many people would just assume it's the city of Lebanon, because it's an urban area. But truly, areas like Palmyra, Annville, Cleona and Myerstown are areas that also see a lot of families living in those areas because of some of affordably of housing... but are still struggling with that basic household budget."
In 2021, more than 4,300 Lebanon County residents reached out to the United Way's 211 program. The program connects families to local programs to help them with problems like financial, housing and food assistance.
According to the Federal Poverty Level, 436,173 children in Pennsylvania lived in poverty in 2019. Yet ALICE data shows another 27%, or 698,628 children, were growing up in households with with hardship.
For Lebanon County, O'Shea said 31% of children are in ALICE households and 20% of children are below the federal poverty level.
Nearly 604,000 children in ALICE households in Pennsylvania did not participate in SNAP programs in 2019, according to officials. O'Shea added another 312,000 in the state had no high speed internet access before the pandemic.
Officials said 54% of children in renter households below the ALICE threshold in the state paid more than 35% of household income on rent.
United Way officials are hoping to use this data to bring greater awareness to government officials and community leaders about ALICE households, and hopefully push for legislation, programs and communication for residents who can't currently qualify for subsidy programs find assistance.
"You are going to know someone who is an ALICE (household)," O'Shea said. "You are going to interact daily with someone who is ALICE. So, to be conscious of this population and the financial strain they are going through may help engage and address the issues that they face."
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Residents can find more information about the ALICE report, including breakdowns by county, at www.uwp.org/alice.
Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at mtoth@ldnews.com or on Twitter at @DAMattToth.
This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: ALICE report shows Lebanon residents struggle to afford basic needs
