One-third of Ill. households struggle to pay bills
United Way’s ALICE report finds 12 percent in poverty, double that in financial hardship
Rep. Terri Bryant, Sen. Kimberly Lightford, Sue Grey of the United Way of Illinois, and Sen. Celina Villanueva discuss the ALICE report at a news conference in Springfield. (Blue Room Stream)
By Ted Cox
A new report published Wednesday by the United Way of Illinois finds 12 percent of state households in poverty, but double that number struggling just to make ends meet.
“ALICE in Illinois: A Financial Hardship Study” focuses on working families the United Way has identified with the acronym ALICE, standing for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed individuals and households — in short, working families or the working poor. Kimberlee Guenther, a vice president at the United Way of Metro Chicago, said at a news conference Wednesday in Springfield that the designation tries to get beyond the “stark contrasts” that typify the debate on poverty issues. “People are living in poverty or they’re not,” she said. “It’s much more complex than that.”
“This is an issue that should bring us together across regional and political lines,” said Sue Grey, board chairwoman of the United Way of Illinois and chief executive officer of the United Way of Champaign County. “ALICE lives in every city and town in Illinois. What are we going to do to help our neighbors?”
According to the report, the 36 percent of Illinois households that are either below the poverty line or that meet ALICE standards is a 20 percent increase from 2007. It states: “The cost of basic household expenses in Illinois increased steadily to $57,144 for a family of four (two adults with one infant and one preschooler) and $19,212 for a single adult — significantly higher than the (Federal Poverty Line) of $24,600 for a family of four and $12,060 for a single adult. The cost of the family budget increased by 38 percent from 2007 to 2017, driven primarily by increases in the cost of housing, health care, and child care, and by the addition of a basic smartphone plan to the budget.”
The report cites statistics showing that “in Illinois, 56 percent of jobs pay less than $20 per hour, with more than half of those paying less than $15 per hour. Another 33 percent of jobs pay between $20 and $40 per hour. Only 12 percent of jobs pay more than $40 per hour.”
“People all over Illinois are struggling to get ahead,” said state Sen. Kimberly Lightford of Maywood. She said 18 percent of households in her district, comprising Chicago’s West Side and the near western suburbs, are living below the poverty line. “But I know that many more folks than that are unable to afford an unexpected car repair or be able to put anything aside for the future.” She added that 47 percent of her constituents meet the ALICE standards including those below the poverty line.
“Too often, Illinois uses a one-size-fits-all approach to measuring conditions and needs of the working poor,” said state Rep. Terri Bryant of Murphysboro at the opposite corner of the state from Maywood. She said 21 percent of households in her district live below the poverty line, with a total of 45 percent meeting the ALICE definition. “In all areas of the state, in every corner,” she said, “we have great needs.”
Bryant said the new category is meant to not only target areas of need, but to get those in need to accept aid. She added that, for most of her 38 years of marriage, she and her husband would have met the ALICE conditions, but “I was raised in a family that said you don’t take government assistance.”
Legislators echoed the report and the United Way of Illinois in urging expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit as a way to provide more relief to a wider range of working families than just those below the poverty line. They also backed extension of early childhood education — a pet program of Gov. Pritzker — in that it provides parents the child care they need to go to work, while also addressing social inequities as early as possible.
Several spoke also of the “benefits cliff,” in which workers earning a certain amount of money disqualify themselves from poverty programs, while still failing to meet the rising costs of living in housing, health care, and education.
“The ALICE report gives us a real look at what working families around Chicago and across Illinois are struggling with each and every day,” said Don Villar, secretary-treasurer of the Chicago Federation of Labor. “People may have jobs, but they are in an enormous struggle to survive. They don’t make enough.”
“We cannot stand by while so many people in our state are struggling,” Grey said. “These individuals and families are doing everything they can to achieve stability and provide for their loved ones, but too often in Illinois today there is simply no way to manage this without additional support.
“The strength and vitality of our state is dependent on all of our residents having what they need to support their families and to plan for the future,” she added. “It is critical that change happens on the state and local levels or the number of ALICE households will continue to rise.”