CALHOUN, CO. — Battle Creek and Calhoun County residents continue to face challenges as more and more people live at or below a certain income level that, while above the federal poverty level of $27,750, is well below what is needed to meet basic needs.
For a family of four, that threshold was $78,684 in 2022, making them part of the Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed (ALICE) population, which has become a major focus of United Ways across the United States, including the United Way of South Central Michigan The UWSCMI serves a six-county region, including Calhoun County.
In its 6th annual ALICE report released in May, the Michigan Association of United Ways said data collected between 2021 and 2022 showed that of the 4,056,442 households in Michigan, 1,671,196, or 41%, were below the ALICE threshold. Calhoun County was three percentage points above that statewide figure, with 44% of the 53,388 households living below it. ALICE threshold.
Natalie O’Hagan, Senior Director of Strategy and Culture at UWSCMI“I think it was not too surprising, unfortunately,” says Natalie O’Hagan, Senior Director of Strategy and Culture at UWSCMI. “We have seen year after year that ALICE rates continue to rise. This latest report has confirmed that for us. What is unique about this report is that it reflects many of the experiences in our communities where wages have increased and people continue to struggle. The cost of living index for our families shows that costs are outpacing their wages and these concerns continue to grow.”
The ALICE reports include a survival budget for different household types, including single people, families of four, single-parent households, and adults over 65. These budgets include the basic needs to make ends meet, not to get ahead.
Financial hardship affects different demographic groups differently. Black (61% below the ALICE threshold), Hispanic (47%) and multiracial (46%) households are more likely to fall below the ALICE threshold than white (38%) households. Likewise, households with a single householder and children, households with adults under 25 and households with adults 65 and older are more likely to experience financial hardship, according to a UWSCMI news release.
“A single adult in the region needs to earn $2,378 each month to meet the most basic needs, which equates to a full-time hourly wage of $14.27,” the release said. “A family of four with two adults and two children needs $6,329 each month to meet these basic needs, which equates to a full-time hourly wage of $37.97. These are paycheck-to-paycheck survival budgets where one unplanned expense can plunge a household into poverty.”
Taxes, technology, healthcare, transportation, food, housing and child care represent these basic needs, as outlined in the report.
Of these, “child care remains one of the highest costs in the survival budget for households with children, and the child care system is still feeling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the report says. “Shortages of providers and a lack of affordable care leave parents with fewer options. According to the October 2023 Household Pulse SurveyWhen families in Michigan were asked what they did when child care was closed, unavailable, or unaffordable, the most common responses among respondents below the ALICE threshold were to reduce their work hours (37%) and take unpaid leave (28%).
DecencyJen Hsu-Bishop, chief equity officer for United Way of South Central Michigan“To be financially stable, meaning to meet basic needs and have some savings, a single adult in our region needs $4,104 each month. That’s a full-time hourly wage of $24.62,” said Jen Hsu-Bishop, Executive Impact & Equity Officer at UWSCMI. “A family of four needs $10,952 per month, or $65.71 per hour, to be financially stable. Yet nearly three-quarters of the top 20 jobs in Michigan pay less than $20 per hour. That means thousands of people in our communities are working full-time but not earning enough to make ends meet.”
Leaders agree there is still much work to be done, and UWSCMI is marshaling the resources and partners to advance this work both locally and regionally. These include UWSCMI’s Program Assistance Center, which connects people with utility services, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, which provides free tax filing, and the Continuum of Care activities, which ensure families have a roof over their heads, and address many other needs and challenges.
More than words and data
In late July, UWSCMI announced that local support and external grants in 2023-24 will total more than $23.6 million to advance efforts to address financial hardship and basic household needs in the six counties it serves. UWSCMI also announced that it has begun the next round of local matching funds – unrestricted funds from United Way donors to fund local programs and partners addressing specific needs of the ALICE population – totaling more than $3.3 million.
“We prioritize programs that serve the ALICE population,” says Andrea Macklin, UWSCMI’s associate director of community impact for Kalamazoo and Battle Creek. “We had three focus areas for basic needs.”
Andrea Macklin, UWSCMI’s Associate Director of Community Impact for Kalamazoo and Battle CreekThese areas include programs that identify opportunities to move families across the ALICE threshold and programs focused on building community to meet the needs of the ALICE population, such as community centers or advocacy efforts.
New grantees in Battle Creek this year include Catching the Dream Learning Center, a daycare center housed in the Burma Center staffed by members of the Burmese community and open to any child in Battle Creek.
“If you have children, it’s difficult to find childcare while you can work,” Macklin says.
Other scholarship recipients are VOICESwhich is “tasked with meeting all the needs of the Latinx community in Calhoun County. They are not new to us and continue to do really great work,” Macklin says.
“Milk like mine is another group that meets a very specific need,” she says. “Infant birth and mortality rates are higher among black mothers in this region. Milk Like Mine offers a range of programs and services.”
The 60 programs in Battle Creek and Kalamazoo that received UWSCMI funding had to serve people living at or below the ALICE threshold, Macklin says.
“We received a total of $13.4 million in requests from Battle Creek and Kalamazoo and were able to allocate $3.3 million,” she says.
Fifty-nine agencies operating 60 programs in Battle Creek and Kalamazoo received nearly $2.8 million of the total available funds; the remainder went to agencies in Jackson County and the Capital Area.
“Local allocations are only a portion of our overall investments, but they are critical to addressing specific needs at the local level,” says Jen Hsu-Bishop, Executive Impact & Equity Officer at UWSCMI. “These investments emphasize the needs of people in financial distress, including ALICE households, people experiencing poverty, and people who have been historically oppressed and marginalized.”
They say that for every dollar donated, UWSCMI was able to bring an additional $3.28 to the six-county region.
This will finance the basic needs of the ever-growing ALICE population, such as food, shelter, hygiene products, and telephone and internet access, which is a necessary byproduct of a technology-driven society, Macklin says.
