June 15, 2024 • 29 mins
Kiran Handa Gaudioso, President & CEO of the United Way of Northern New Jersey and President of United for ALICE, and Dr. Stephanie Hoopes, National Director for United for ALICE. Kiran and Dr. Hoopes discuss the United Way’s work and how data compiled for the ALICE report offers local, state, and federal leaders, charitable organizations, and corporations insight into the actual economic struggles facing millions of families nationwide.
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(00:00):
Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a publicaffairs special focusing on the biggest issues impacting
you. This week, here's RyanGorman. Thanks so much for joining us
here on iHeart Radio Communities. I'mRan Gorman, and we have a great
conversation lined up for you. Let'sget things started by bringing in two guests
from United for Alice, a movementconnected to the United Way. I'm joined
(00:22):
by Kieran Honda Gaudioso, President andCEO of the United Way of Northern New
Jersey and President of United for Alice. I'm also joined by doctor Stephanie Hoops,
national director for United for Alice.You can learn more about everything we
discuss at United for Alice dot Org. Kieran, doctor Hoops, thank you
so much for coming on the show. And Kieren, let me start with
(00:44):
you. I think just about everyonelistening has heard of the United Way,
but give us an overview of thework you do at the local level across
the country. Thank you and thankyou again Ryan for having Stephanie and I
on today. We really appreciate thisopportunity. I think you know, one
of the things that is really specialabout this work is that it is really
led by our United Way a localUnited Way United Way of Northern New Jersey.
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We operate obviously in New Jersey acrossour state. We focus on five
counties in our community. We arereally focused on providing programs and services that
really provide equitable, supportive solutions forALICE families across our community. We know
that there's a tremendous amount of wealthin the state of New Jersey, but
(01:30):
also a tremendous amount of need.And when you really dig deep and you
really look hard at what the Alicedata tells us, which definitely we'll talk
about, it really reveals that thereis a tremendously unseen population Alice asset limited,
income constrained employed who are working andyet at the end of the week
really struggling to make ends meet.So our United Way is unique, Ryan
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because we get to do that workhere in the state of New Jersey,
like I mentioned, and we haveprograms in areas of childcare, economic mobility,
crisis, disaster support, and thenAlice in the workplace. And then
we also operate this national project calledUnited for Alice, where we work with
United Ways across the country who arealso focused on supporting Alice in ways that
(02:19):
are meaningful and purposeful in their communities. And really that's the power of United
Way, is that we bring peopletogether around creating change that is most meaningful
at a very local level. Yetwe have this national movement that ties us
all together, and we're focused onAlice. The work you do at the
United Way of Northern New Jersey.I'm sure depending on the needs in each
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community there are some differences. Butis the focus more generally speaking, the
same for each local United Way organization. I would say generally yes, generally
yes. I think what is uniqueis that the Alice data tells us where
the tremendous costs are and the arefor Alice families. So, for example,
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in New Jersey, the number onecost item in an Alice family's budget
is most typically childcare. It's ahuge, huge cost driver, even more
than housing in most areas of NewJersey. And so our United Way in
particular has a long history of partneringand supporting work in the childcare space,
and in particular during the pandemic,we created something called United in Care where
(03:24):
we partner childcare centers along with familycare providers, those home based providers.
Black and brown female entrepreneurs who arereally supporting Alice families while they themselves are
Alice. So I think what's uniqueabout the work that we do at United
Way is we use the Alice datato tell us exactly where the needs are,
where the challenges are, and thenwe're able to create programs and services
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to support families addressed specifically at thoseneeds. I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by
Kieran Honda Gaudioso, President and CEOof the United Way of Northern New Jersey
and President of United for Alice,and doctor Stephanie Hoops, National Director for
United for Alice. You can learnmore at United for Alice dot org.
Doctor Hoops, let me bring youin now. How did United for Alice
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first get started. It had avery humble beginning. We were doing our
work in Northern New Jersey. Iwas actually a volunteer and on the board
when I was a professor at Rutgers, and we were trying to figure out
the need in our community. Povertyrate was really low, and yet the
grant applications were really high. Sothis disconnect made us question the federal poverty
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level that was killing us, themagnitude of financial hardship. So putting on
my research hat, getting together anamazing team of research advisors. We figured
out what it actually cost to liveand work in our county in northern New
Jersey and found out it was muchhigher than that federal poverty level, and
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that was really the impetus to developthe ALICE metric and expand from one county
to the state, to neighboring statesto now we are a national research project
across the country. So what goesinto creating this report? Yeah, great
question. So it's a rigorous methodologywith strong oversight from external research experts,
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and we build what's called the householdsurvival budget, so the bare minimum to
live and work in the modern economy, and it's just those basics of housing,
childcare, food, transportation, healthcare, a little bit of technology,
and ALICE paced taxes. So we'revery transparent about what goes into that,
and we do it for every countyin the country. So we can take
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into account the difference in the costof living in New Jersey to Florida,
to Manhattan to Mississippi and see thatthere's huge difference there, but then also
taking into accounts the difference in thewages that are paid. So it's that
gap between the cost of living andwages when we have ALICE, and so
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those are the two key dimensions forour work. How long have you been
creating this report for and have therebeen changes to how you put it together
over the years. So we've beentracking ALICE since two thousand and seven.
And what is really interesting and haspropelled us in this work is the federal
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poverty level between twenty ten and todayhas been pretty flat, and we've seen
a steady increase in the number ofALICE households. So if we're only looking
at those official measures, we arenot seeing that things are getting harder for
people. We're thinking, oh,maybe poverty is under control, We're getting
by. But what we're seeing ison top of that are those ALICE households
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continuing to struggle, continuing during goodtimes economic recovery, but also during a
pandemic when you know everybody was facingchallenges, and yet the poverty rate is
still staying flat. So we're learninga lot about what it takes to change
that trajectory, and if we can'tmeasure it properly, it's never going to
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happen. Before we get into someof the details of the latest report.
Would you say that this is reflectedin some of what we see when we're
talking about the vibes across the country, how people are feeling about whether it's
the economy, their finances, thingslike that. We are hearing that so
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much that and I'm going to haveto just refer to some of the data
that's coming, but we are seeingwages increase, so we think when we're
hearing from folks, they're going tobe like, yes, my wages are
finally starting to catch up. Manylow wage jobs for the first time have
had wage increases, so that we'reseeing that on the data, we're hearing
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that from people, but we're alsohearing this huge frustration that even with that
running faster, working harder, they'renot able to keep up. And we're
also seeing that those basic household costsare increasing even faster than those wages,
and Alice started behind and is reallyhaving trouble to ever keep up if those
costs increase faster. I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by Kieran Honda Guardioso, President
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and CEO of the United Way ofNorthern New Jersey and President of United for
Alice, and doctor Stephanie Hoops Nationaldirector for United for Alice. You can
learn more at United for Alice dotorg. Kieran, let me go back
to you for a moment in termsof how this research and this data has
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been consumed over the years. Ainceyou've been putting out these reports, have
you found that different communities, differentUnited Way chapters, they're really able to
utilize it and put the information togood use. Yes, Brian, that's
a great question. You know everyonewants to know. Okay, so here's
the data of it. Not nowwhat right? I think that's what you're
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getting to. And yes, infact, we are seeing examples every day
across the country, across the movementwhere United Ways are really leading and supporting
and consulting on kind of substantive change. I can share two examples that you
know come to mind. The nota Way of West Tennessee, an area
that has a historical tremendous amount oflow wages and a rural poverty, not
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much investment, has really partnered withFord Motor Company because they're building one of
the largest electric vehicle manufacturing plant projectsin the world in that area of West
Tennessee, and so the United Waythere is helping Ford identify the needs that
ALICE families have in that community,what the impact of that investment will mean
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in terms of the local economy andaffordability, and really using the Alice data
to look at gaps and services andsupports for the entire community with an investment
like that. Another one is CocaCola Bottling Company United Locate headquartered in Georgia.
They're the largest privately owned Coca Colabottler in the United States. They
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use the Alice data to benchmark anentirely new pay scale system for their workforce
to really ensure equity around compensation fortheir employees. And so those are just
you know, two examples, butbig ones, you know, brand names
that you know folks will recognize.Where we see United Ways really leading the
charge and engaging partners, you know, in every community in ways that are
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incredibly purposeful and really drive not onlythe need of the community but the entire
local economy. That's interesting. Soyou have companies using this data, what
about local elected officials, local governments, state governments, state leaders are they
taking a look at this information thatyou're putting together as well. Absolutely,
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we see it across you know,all different state departments municipal governments, county
governments. One of the core elementsof the Alice movement is the Alice Survival
budget, and Stephanie, can youknow, sports speak further. She's talked
to it a little bit, butthe survival budget really is a true measure
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of what it costs to live andtake and basically survive, the minimum to
survive for a family. And wesee many local government officials at every level,
including the federal, state, local, municipal, county. A lot
of those entities are using that survivalbudget as the eligibility kind of determination criteria
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for when a family needs services orindividual needs the port. And that's something
that is a real game changer becauseit's really pro getting the interventions and the
service is to folks who really needit, even though you know they may
technically may be above the poverty level, but they're still struggling, and those
entities are using the Alice survival budgetas the determining factor. Stephanie, let
(12:13):
me bring you in to talk moreabout the survival budget. Is this that
number and I'm sure the number shiftsa bit, but just generally speaking,
is this that like forty percent numberwhere you know, forty percent of households
are barely getting by and they're oneincident away from falling under. Yes,
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Unfortunately, our latest report showed thatforty two percent of households are below that
ALICE threshold. So that's poverty householdplus ALICE, and it's fifty four million
households in the US. Tell uswhat goes into that number and how that
number has changed. Like I mentioned, I had heard previously based on you
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know, a pass report, it'saround forty percent. Now it sounds like
it's ticked up a little bit.Dive a little deeper into that particular aspect
of all of this. So great, So we measure the household survival budget
for every county in the country,and it's really different place to place.
So for example, El Paso County, Texas, it's about sixty eight sixty
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nine thousand dollars. In Columbus,Ohio, it's ninety one thousand dollars for
a family of four with two childrenfor that same family composition, it's one
hundred and thirty three thousand in ArlingtonCounty, Virginia. So we going from
you know, sixty eight thousand toone hundred and thirty thousand is a big
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difference. But when you think aboutthose places, you know, the cost
of living is really different, andas Kieren said, when you've got two
kids in childcare, that adds alot to a family budget. So we're
able to take into account those differences, and then we look at how many
households earn below that. And insome places, you know, wages are
higher and there aren't as many alicehouseholds. In some places, wages are
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lower, and there's an even largerproportion of the population that's struggling to meet
those basic needs. So there's alicein every county and every state, in
every local community across the country,the rates vary. And then we also
see alice as every shape and sizethat we see in our country, to
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every age group, every race,ethnicity, every family composition, rural,
urban, suburban. We see aliceeverywhere. But we also know, due
to historic discrimination and systemic agism,sexism, and geographic barriers, that some
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groups are disproportionately alice. So wesee higher rates among black and Hispanic households,
among single parent households, and amongour oldest and youngest households. So
there's alice everywhere, but we knowthat some groups are higher rates and need
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even more attention. What have weseen in recent years in terms of the
number of Alice households As we've seeninflation remain at an elevated level. Obviously
the trend line has come down,but when you take a look at the
cumulative effect of it and how muchprices have gone up, it's really put
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a strain on so many families acrossthe country. What have we seen in
terms of the impact of that inbringing more and more families into that Alice
threshold. So we track both inflationas well as wages, and our next
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report being released shortly stay tuned,is the Alice Essentials Index. So we're
looking at how do the cost increasethat Alice of the things that Alice needs
to buy, just those bare minimums, and how does that compare to what
is increasing in the consumer price index, and that's all the goods and services
that people buy. What we findis those household basics are increasing faster than
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the overall goods and services, andso as a result, even though inflation
is impacting everyone, it's impacting Alicemore and so we're seeing Alice get those
wage increases, but also the thingsthey have to buy are increasing even faster.
So Alice is having trouble catching up. And we see that in the
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data both for the number of Alicehouseholds increasing, we see that in the
inflation index, and we hear itin the struggles, in the frustration and
the anxiety of Alice on the groundsharing their stories. How much is the
cost of shelter and housing factoring in, because that's become a major issue in
communities all across the country too.Right, and here's a great example.
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So we're seeing housing costs increase acrossthe board, and yet we're seeing that
the housing costs are increasing for Aliceeven more so, while everybody's facing some
of that challenge that those low costs, those smaller units, their rents increasing
faster than bigger houses and second homes, let's say, things that are far
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outside of Alice's reach. I'm RyanGorman, joined right now by Kieran Honda
Gaudioso, President and CEO of theUnited Way of Northern New Jersey and President
of United for Alice, and doctorStephanie Hoops, National director for United for
Alice. You can learn more atUnited for Alice dot org. So I
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want to turn back to you,Kieran in terms of the practical impact act
of all of this tremendous data thatyou put together United for Alice. We
talked a little bit earlier about howdifferent United Way organizations can take that into
account in communities and also how leadership, whether it's at the federal level,
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state level, local level, theycan take it into account as well.
You guys also mentioned how companies arefactoring all of this in So in terms
of where we are now, whatare some other stories of how this has
been implemented in order to better helpthose who are part of the ALICE group.
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I think one of the most powerfulthings we've seen come out of the
Alice movement, Ryan, are thestories, the stories of the families,
the individuals, you know, alldifferent compositions, locations, race, ethnicity.
It's really the stories that we hearfrom people that really didn't know they
were Alice, just knew they werestruggling. And when we are able to
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lift up those stories, amplify thosestories, that's where we see just more
people joining us and raising their voices, becoming advocates, volunteering, you know,
providing an investment, making a donation, and That's really what happens when
we are able to combine you know, the data with all the kind of
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on the ground partner work that's happenedthat you just outlined, and then with
just engaging our local communities around thestories of these families and the long histories
of challenge that these families are dealingwith despite working, despite being critical to
our economy. Alice is you know, during the pandemic, we all very
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quickly realized how much we relied onAlice, not just in the healthcare space,
but you know, retail and serviceeconomy, our you know, drivers,
our delivery, all of those things. We need Alice in our community.
And by you know, hearing storiesand amplifying the challenges that families are
experiencing, that's where real systemic,long term change happens, because then we
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all really take a step back andacknowledge what's happening in our community. Stephanie
just talked about, you know,forty two percent of households across the United
States are alice and in poverty.You know, that's a tremendously large number.
And when we have that many familiesand households that are struggling, it's
not good for anyone. The entireeconomy and all of our communities are then
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struggling. Doctor Hoops, let meturn back to you. I want to
get to a few other groups youtrack with this ALICE data, children,
people with disabilities, and veterans.Talk to us about that, right,
We've been digging into some special populationsand we found that half of children in
the US are below that ALICE threshold. They're living in families that are struggling
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to afford their basic needs. Sothat should be a call for anyone to
realize that, you know, thatmagnitude of financial hardship is in our communities
and that's going to be driving ourfuture. We also see very high proportion
of people with disabilities that are alliesand it impacts not only them but their
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families in terms of caregiving and abilityto work, as well as additional costs.
But people with disabilities can also work, and as our economy struggles to
find workers and retain workers, youknow, here's a group that could definitely
be tapped into and brought into thelabor force in a productive way. And
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then finally, in our veterans' work, here's a group where we see veterans
actually doing better than non veterans.And in looking into that, there are
so many terrific programs that support ourveterans in terms of healthcare, in terms
of job growth and development, aswell as housing supports, and these are
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the kinds of things that are makinga difference. And so in learning that,
we thought, gosh, here aregood examples of what might be provided
to non veteran groups to make adifference. So it's nice to have at
least one success story and do liketo highlight some of the great programs that
have been brought onto line for veterans. That's really interesting, and that leads
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me to a follow up question realquick, as you're tracking Alice across the
country and you're seeing what works andwhat doesn't, what are some best practices,
programs, things that are lifting peopleup out of that group. So
there's two sides to the equation.Anything that increases wages for Alice makes a
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huge difference anything that increases their income. So wages is the first thing that
we think of the economic impact.Payments made a differ friends during the pandemic,
So there's that whole side of theequation. And then anything that reduces
costs So anything that makes housing moreaffordable, anything that makes childcare accessible and
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affordable. Same goes for transportation healthcare. So you think of the programs that
have been put into place that aremaking it easier for Alice to get where
they need to go, that aremaking healthcare more affordable, makes a huge
difference to these families. I'm RyanGorman, joined by Kieran Honda Gaudioso,
(23:36):
President and CEO the net Way ofNorthern New Jersey and President of United for
Alice, and doctor Stephanie Hoops,National Director for United for Alice. You
can learn more about this organization atUnited for Alice dot org. Are there
certain parts of a family's budget thatis having an even greater impact on those
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in the Alice group these days,whether it's healthcare costs or housing, like
we talked about before, Are therecertain things that in more recent years are
creating a bigger and bigger problem forfamilies to pull themselves out of that Alice
threshold. Well, we dig intoeach one of those, Brian, and
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they are all increasing right now.So housing we already touched upon that low
income housing childcare is so important.It's we call it the workforce behind the
workforce, Alice needs to be ableto afford to take their child to childcare,
and yet so many of those childcareworkers are themselves Alice. So there's
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a real conundrum of industry that's notworking according to market dynamics. And we've
been working with a lot of ourpartners on pilots exploring ways to improve that
childcare system, getting money in fortuition assistants, getting subsidies in, or
some of those providers who are workingin tough neighborhoods and hearing that folks need
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more childcare. They need it beforework, you know, traditional work hours,
they need it after traditional work hours, and they need it on the
weekend. You know, Alice isworking twenty four to sevent these days to
keep our economy running. Kieren,let me turn back to you for a
moment. How can everyone go toUnited for Alice dot org and kind of
digest some of this information? Andobviously, I mean, there's so much
(25:30):
here. What are some suggestions ifpeople want to learn more about a lot
of what we've talked about so far. I think the best place to start
is, really, as you said, Ryan, is to visit the website
and you know, really look atyour your state, and then there's there's
lots of easy ways to navigate thestate information and toggle over you a heat
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map to look at your county oryou know, as a collection of counties
and really understand kind of the basicnumber that we've been talking about, the
percentage of households that are Alice,the percentage of households that are in poverty.
And then from there, you know, it really depends on what you're
interested in. We have, asyou said, many many tools. Really
(26:14):
depends on kind of what your vantagepoint is and whether or not you are
working in the nonprofit sector on aparticular issue such as housing, or whether
you are a government official and youreally want to really legislator and you want
to understand your constituency and all thevarying issues in your constituency. So it
really depends. But we have,you know, as Stephanie said, something
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called the Economic Viability Dashboard where youcan really drill down and look at housing
and other issues in the community andwhat that means for ALICE families when there
are supports and changes around the availabilityof housing and other services. We have
an election excuse me, and alegislative district tool where You can sort the
(26:56):
Dallas data by not only federal butstate legislative district, which is very powerful,
very helpful. We have a wagetool, you know, we have
a million million and those are justa few. We have a million different
ways of indicators where you can lookat Alice relative to food, desert childcare,
deserts, libraries, you know,all all different kinds of indicator analysis.
(27:19):
So I think it's it's get onthe website, see what interests you,
and then really reach out reach outto our team. We respond to
a lot of inquiries from folks whoare looking for something that maybe they didn't
see, or they are looking forsomething new and different. You know,
everything that Stephanie's talked about, alot of that those data and those tools
(27:41):
really came from requests from the field, from the communities, from folks inquiring,
and so we love to hear youknow, how people are using the
data and then also you know adifferent requests for it. And the last
thing I'll say, because I knowwe're short on time, is we would
really encourage your listeners to if theydo have and Alice story themselves or they
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know someone who'd be willing to sharetheir Alice story to please go to Alicevoice's
dot org. You know that youcan reach it right from our website.
It's right there when you get ontothe landing page. And we're really looking
to, as I said, collectstories directly from Alice families and make sure
that we're able to amplify those storiesin partnership with the data. Because when
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you bring the personal narrative and storyand you combine it with the data,
that's when we see, you know, long term systemic change happen again.
You can find all of that atUnited for Alice dot org. That's United
for Alice dot org to sift throughthe research and the information we've been discussing.
If you are someone who is Alice, you're in that Alice threshold and
(28:51):
you're in need of help, youcan go to to one one dot org
or call to one one to connectwith different supportive services. Again, if
you're listening right now and you're partof that Alice group and your need of
some assistance, call two one oneor go to two one one dot org
for more information. Kieran Honda Gaudioso, President and CEO of the United Way
(29:15):
of Northern New Jersey and president ofUnited for Alice and doctor Stephanie Hoops,
National Director for United for Alice Kieran, Doctor Hoops, thank you both so
much for coming on the show.We really appreciate it. Good conversation.
Thanks Brian, thank you, Thanksso much. Ryan. All Right,
and that's going to do it forthis edition of iHeartRadio Communities. As we
wrap things up, I want tooffer a big thanks to all of our
(29:36):
guests and of course to all ofyou for listening. If you want to
hear previous episodes of this show,we're on your iHeartRadio app. Just search
for iHeartRadio Communities. I'm your host, Ryan Gorman. We'll talk to you
again real soon.
Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a publicaffairs special focusing on the biggest issues impacting
you. This week, here's RyanGorman. Thanks so much for joining us
here on iHeart Radio Communities. I'mRan Gorman, and we have a great
conversation lined up for you. Let'sget things started by bringing in two guests
from United for Alice, a movementconnected to the United Way. I'm joined
(00:22):
by Kieran Honda Gaudioso, President andCEO of the United Way of Northern New
Jersey and President of United for Alice. I'm also joined by doctor Stephanie Hoops,
national director for United for Alice.You can learn more about everything we
discuss at United for Alice dot Org. Kieran, doctor Hoops, thank you
so much for coming on the show. And Kieren, let me start with
(00:44):
you. I think just about everyonelistening has heard of the United Way,
but give us an overview of thework you do at the local level across
the country. Thank you and thankyou again Ryan for having Stephanie and I
on today. We really appreciate thisopportunity. I think you know, one
of the things that is really specialabout this work is that it is really
led by our United Way a localUnited Way United Way of Northern New Jersey.
(01:08):
We operate obviously in New Jersey acrossour state. We focus on five
counties in our community. We arereally focused on providing programs and services that
really provide equitable, supportive solutions forALICE families across our community. We know
that there's a tremendous amount of wealthin the state of New Jersey, but
(01:30):
also a tremendous amount of need.And when you really dig deep and you
really look hard at what the Alicedata tells us, which definitely we'll talk
about, it really reveals that thereis a tremendously unseen population Alice asset limited,
income constrained employed who are working andyet at the end of the week
really struggling to make ends meet.So our United Way is unique, Ryan
(01:53):
because we get to do that workhere in the state of New Jersey,
like I mentioned, and we haveprograms in areas of childcare, economic mobility,
crisis, disaster support, and thenAlice in the workplace. And then
we also operate this national project calledUnited for Alice, where we work with
United Ways across the country who arealso focused on supporting Alice in ways that
(02:19):
are meaningful and purposeful in their communities. And really that's the power of United
Way, is that we bring peopletogether around creating change that is most meaningful
at a very local level. Yetwe have this national movement that ties us
all together, and we're focused onAlice. The work you do at the
United Way of Northern New Jersey.I'm sure depending on the needs in each
(02:40):
community there are some differences. Butis the focus more generally speaking, the
same for each local United Way organization. I would say generally yes, generally
yes. I think what is uniqueis that the Alice data tells us where
the tremendous costs are and the arefor Alice families. So, for example,
(03:01):
in New Jersey, the number onecost item in an Alice family's budget
is most typically childcare. It's ahuge, huge cost driver, even more
than housing in most areas of NewJersey. And so our United Way in
particular has a long history of partneringand supporting work in the childcare space,
and in particular during the pandemic,we created something called United in Care where
(03:24):
we partner childcare centers along with familycare providers, those home based providers.
Black and brown female entrepreneurs who arereally supporting Alice families while they themselves are
Alice. So I think what's uniqueabout the work that we do at United
Way is we use the Alice datato tell us exactly where the needs are,
where the challenges are, and thenwe're able to create programs and services
(03:46):
to support families addressed specifically at thoseneeds. I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by
Kieran Honda Gaudioso, President and CEOof the United Way of Northern New Jersey
and President of United for Alice,and doctor Stephanie Hoops, National Director for
United for Alice. You can learnmore at United for Alice dot org.
Doctor Hoops, let me bring youin now. How did United for Alice
(04:10):
first get started. It had avery humble beginning. We were doing our
work in Northern New Jersey. Iwas actually a volunteer and on the board
when I was a professor at Rutgers, and we were trying to figure out
the need in our community. Povertyrate was really low, and yet the
grant applications were really high. Sothis disconnect made us question the federal poverty
(04:38):
level that was killing us, themagnitude of financial hardship. So putting on
my research hat, getting together anamazing team of research advisors. We figured
out what it actually cost to liveand work in our county in northern New
Jersey and found out it was muchhigher than that federal poverty level, and
(04:58):
that was really the impetus to developthe ALICE metric and expand from one county
to the state, to neighboring statesto now we are a national research project
across the country. So what goesinto creating this report? Yeah, great
question. So it's a rigorous methodologywith strong oversight from external research experts,
(05:25):
and we build what's called the householdsurvival budget, so the bare minimum to
live and work in the modern economy, and it's just those basics of housing,
childcare, food, transportation, healthcare, a little bit of technology,
and ALICE paced taxes. So we'revery transparent about what goes into that,
and we do it for every countyin the country. So we can take
(05:46):
into account the difference in the costof living in New Jersey to Florida,
to Manhattan to Mississippi and see thatthere's huge difference there, but then also
taking into accounts the difference in thewages that are paid. So it's that
gap between the cost of living andwages when we have ALICE, and so
(06:10):
those are the two key dimensions forour work. How long have you been
creating this report for and have therebeen changes to how you put it together
over the years. So we've beentracking ALICE since two thousand and seven.
And what is really interesting and haspropelled us in this work is the federal
(06:30):
poverty level between twenty ten and todayhas been pretty flat, and we've seen
a steady increase in the number ofALICE households. So if we're only looking
at those official measures, we arenot seeing that things are getting harder for
people. We're thinking, oh,maybe poverty is under control, We're getting
by. But what we're seeing ison top of that are those ALICE households
(06:54):
continuing to struggle, continuing during goodtimes economic recovery, but also during a
pandemic when you know everybody was facingchallenges, and yet the poverty rate is
still staying flat. So we're learninga lot about what it takes to change
that trajectory, and if we can'tmeasure it properly, it's never going to
(07:15):
happen. Before we get into someof the details of the latest report.
Would you say that this is reflectedin some of what we see when we're
talking about the vibes across the country, how people are feeling about whether it's
the economy, their finances, thingslike that. We are hearing that so
(07:39):
much that and I'm going to haveto just refer to some of the data
that's coming, but we are seeingwages increase, so we think when we're
hearing from folks, they're going tobe like, yes, my wages are
finally starting to catch up. Manylow wage jobs for the first time have
had wage increases, so that we'reseeing that on the data, we're hearing
(08:01):
that from people, but we're alsohearing this huge frustration that even with that
running faster, working harder, they'renot able to keep up. And we're
also seeing that those basic household costsare increasing even faster than those wages,
and Alice started behind and is reallyhaving trouble to ever keep up if those
costs increase faster. I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by Kieran Honda Guardioso, President
(08:28):
and CEO of the United Way ofNorthern New Jersey and President of United for
Alice, and doctor Stephanie Hoops Nationaldirector for United for Alice. You can
learn more at United for Alice dotorg. Kieran, let me go back
to you for a moment in termsof how this research and this data has
(08:48):
been consumed over the years. Ainceyou've been putting out these reports, have
you found that different communities, differentUnited Way chapters, they're really able to
utilize it and put the information togood use. Yes, Brian, that's
a great question. You know everyonewants to know. Okay, so here's
the data of it. Not nowwhat right? I think that's what you're
(09:09):
getting to. And yes, infact, we are seeing examples every day
across the country, across the movementwhere United Ways are really leading and supporting
and consulting on kind of substantive change. I can share two examples that you
know come to mind. The nota Way of West Tennessee, an area
that has a historical tremendous amount oflow wages and a rural poverty, not
(09:35):
much investment, has really partnered withFord Motor Company because they're building one of
the largest electric vehicle manufacturing plant projectsin the world in that area of West
Tennessee, and so the United Waythere is helping Ford identify the needs that
ALICE families have in that community,what the impact of that investment will mean
(09:56):
in terms of the local economy andaffordability, and really using the Alice data
to look at gaps and services andsupports for the entire community with an investment
like that. Another one is CocaCola Bottling Company United Locate headquartered in Georgia.
They're the largest privately owned Coca Colabottler in the United States. They
(10:18):
use the Alice data to benchmark anentirely new pay scale system for their workforce
to really ensure equity around compensation fortheir employees. And so those are just
you know, two examples, butbig ones, you know, brand names
that you know folks will recognize.Where we see United Ways really leading the
charge and engaging partners, you know, in every community in ways that are
(10:41):
incredibly purposeful and really drive not onlythe need of the community but the entire
local economy. That's interesting. Soyou have companies using this data, what
about local elected officials, local governments, state governments, state leaders are they
taking a look at this information thatyou're putting together as well. Absolutely,
(11:05):
we see it across you know,all different state departments municipal governments, county
governments. One of the core elementsof the Alice movement is the Alice Survival
budget, and Stephanie, can youknow, sports speak further. She's talked
to it a little bit, butthe survival budget really is a true measure
(11:26):
of what it costs to live andtake and basically survive, the minimum to
survive for a family. And wesee many local government officials at every level,
including the federal, state, local, municipal, county. A lot
of those entities are using that survivalbudget as the eligibility kind of determination criteria
(11:48):
for when a family needs services orindividual needs the port. And that's something
that is a real game changer becauseit's really pro getting the interventions and the
service is to folks who really needit, even though you know they may
technically may be above the poverty level, but they're still struggling, and those
entities are using the Alice survival budgetas the determining factor. Stephanie, let
(12:13):
me bring you in to talk moreabout the survival budget. Is this that
number and I'm sure the number shiftsa bit, but just generally speaking,
is this that like forty percent numberwhere you know, forty percent of households
are barely getting by and they're oneincident away from falling under. Yes,
(12:37):
Unfortunately, our latest report showed thatforty two percent of households are below that
ALICE threshold. So that's poverty householdplus ALICE, and it's fifty four million
households in the US. Tell uswhat goes into that number and how that
number has changed. Like I mentioned, I had heard previously based on you
(13:00):
know, a pass report, it'saround forty percent. Now it sounds like
it's ticked up a little bit.Dive a little deeper into that particular aspect
of all of this. So great, So we measure the household survival budget
for every county in the country,and it's really different place to place.
So for example, El Paso County, Texas, it's about sixty eight sixty
(13:20):
nine thousand dollars. In Columbus,Ohio, it's ninety one thousand dollars for
a family of four with two childrenfor that same family composition, it's one
hundred and thirty three thousand in ArlingtonCounty, Virginia. So we going from
you know, sixty eight thousand toone hundred and thirty thousand is a big
(13:41):
difference. But when you think aboutthose places, you know, the cost
of living is really different, andas Kieren said, when you've got two
kids in childcare, that adds alot to a family budget. So we're
able to take into account those differences, and then we look at how many
households earn below that. And insome places, you know, wages are
higher and there aren't as many alicehouseholds. In some places, wages are
(14:05):
lower, and there's an even largerproportion of the population that's struggling to meet
those basic needs. So there's alicein every county and every state, in
every local community across the country,the rates vary. And then we also
see alice as every shape and sizethat we see in our country, to
(14:31):
every age group, every race,ethnicity, every family composition, rural,
urban, suburban. We see aliceeverywhere. But we also know, due
to historic discrimination and systemic agism,sexism, and geographic barriers, that some
(14:52):
groups are disproportionately alice. So wesee higher rates among black and Hispanic households,
among single parent households, and amongour oldest and youngest households. So
there's alice everywhere, but we knowthat some groups are higher rates and need
(15:13):
even more attention. What have weseen in recent years in terms of the
number of Alice households As we've seeninflation remain at an elevated level. Obviously
the trend line has come down,but when you take a look at the
cumulative effect of it and how muchprices have gone up, it's really put
(15:35):
a strain on so many families acrossthe country. What have we seen in
terms of the impact of that inbringing more and more families into that Alice
threshold. So we track both inflationas well as wages, and our next
(15:56):
report being released shortly stay tuned,is the Alice Essentials Index. So we're
looking at how do the cost increasethat Alice of the things that Alice needs
to buy, just those bare minimums, and how does that compare to what
is increasing in the consumer price index, and that's all the goods and services
that people buy. What we findis those household basics are increasing faster than
(16:22):
the overall goods and services, andso as a result, even though inflation
is impacting everyone, it's impacting Alicemore and so we're seeing Alice get those
wage increases, but also the thingsthey have to buy are increasing even faster.
So Alice is having trouble catching up. And we see that in the
(16:44):
data both for the number of Alicehouseholds increasing, we see that in the
inflation index, and we hear itin the struggles, in the frustration and
the anxiety of Alice on the groundsharing their stories. How much is the
cost of shelter and housing factoring in, because that's become a major issue in
communities all across the country too.Right, and here's a great example.
(17:07):
So we're seeing housing costs increase acrossthe board, and yet we're seeing that
the housing costs are increasing for Aliceeven more so, while everybody's facing some
of that challenge that those low costs, those smaller units, their rents increasing
faster than bigger houses and second homes, let's say, things that are far
(17:33):
outside of Alice's reach. I'm RyanGorman, joined right now by Kieran Honda
Gaudioso, President and CEO of theUnited Way of Northern New Jersey and President
of United for Alice, and doctorStephanie Hoops, National director for United for
Alice. You can learn more atUnited for Alice dot org. So I
(17:56):
want to turn back to you,Kieran in terms of the practical impact act
of all of this tremendous data thatyou put together United for Alice. We
talked a little bit earlier about howdifferent United Way organizations can take that into
account in communities and also how leadership, whether it's at the federal level,
(18:17):
state level, local level, theycan take it into account as well.
You guys also mentioned how companies arefactoring all of this in So in terms
of where we are now, whatare some other stories of how this has
been implemented in order to better helpthose who are part of the ALICE group.
(18:41):
I think one of the most powerfulthings we've seen come out of the
Alice movement, Ryan, are thestories, the stories of the families,
the individuals, you know, alldifferent compositions, locations, race, ethnicity.
It's really the stories that we hearfrom people that really didn't know they
were Alice, just knew they werestruggling. And when we are able to
(19:04):
lift up those stories, amplify thosestories, that's where we see just more
people joining us and raising their voices, becoming advocates, volunteering, you know,
providing an investment, making a donation, and That's really what happens when
we are able to combine you know, the data with all the kind of
(19:26):
on the ground partner work that's happenedthat you just outlined, and then with
just engaging our local communities around thestories of these families and the long histories
of challenge that these families are dealingwith despite working, despite being critical to
our economy. Alice is you know, during the pandemic, we all very
(19:47):
quickly realized how much we relied onAlice, not just in the healthcare space,
but you know, retail and serviceeconomy, our you know, drivers,
our delivery, all of those things. We need Alice in our community.
And by you know, hearing storiesand amplifying the challenges that families are
experiencing, that's where real systemic,long term change happens, because then we
(20:08):
all really take a step back andacknowledge what's happening in our community. Stephanie
just talked about, you know,forty two percent of households across the United
States are alice and in poverty.You know, that's a tremendously large number.
And when we have that many familiesand households that are struggling, it's
not good for anyone. The entireeconomy and all of our communities are then
(20:30):
struggling. Doctor Hoops, let meturn back to you. I want to
get to a few other groups youtrack with this ALICE data, children,
people with disabilities, and veterans.Talk to us about that, right,
We've been digging into some special populationsand we found that half of children in
the US are below that ALICE threshold. They're living in families that are struggling
(20:52):
to afford their basic needs. Sothat should be a call for anyone to
realize that, you know, thatmagnitude of financial hardship is in our communities
and that's going to be driving ourfuture. We also see very high proportion
of people with disabilities that are alliesand it impacts not only them but their
(21:14):
families in terms of caregiving and abilityto work, as well as additional costs.
But people with disabilities can also work, and as our economy struggles to
find workers and retain workers, youknow, here's a group that could definitely
be tapped into and brought into thelabor force in a productive way. And
(21:37):
then finally, in our veterans' work, here's a group where we see veterans
actually doing better than non veterans.And in looking into that, there are
so many terrific programs that support ourveterans in terms of healthcare, in terms
of job growth and development, aswell as housing supports, and these are
(22:03):
the kinds of things that are makinga difference. And so in learning that,
we thought, gosh, here aregood examples of what might be provided
to non veteran groups to make adifference. So it's nice to have at
least one success story and do liketo highlight some of the great programs that
have been brought onto line for veterans. That's really interesting, and that leads
(22:27):
me to a follow up question realquick, as you're tracking Alice across the
country and you're seeing what works andwhat doesn't, what are some best practices,
programs, things that are lifting peopleup out of that group. So
there's two sides to the equation.Anything that increases wages for Alice makes a
(22:51):
huge difference anything that increases their income. So wages is the first thing that
we think of the economic impact.Payments made a differ friends during the pandemic,
So there's that whole side of theequation. And then anything that reduces
costs So anything that makes housing moreaffordable, anything that makes childcare accessible and
(23:14):
affordable. Same goes for transportation healthcare. So you think of the programs that
have been put into place that aremaking it easier for Alice to get where
they need to go, that aremaking healthcare more affordable, makes a huge
difference to these families. I'm RyanGorman, joined by Kieran Honda Gaudioso,
(23:36):
President and CEO the net Way ofNorthern New Jersey and President of United for
Alice, and doctor Stephanie Hoops,National Director for United for Alice. You
can learn more about this organization atUnited for Alice dot org. Are there
certain parts of a family's budget thatis having an even greater impact on those
(23:56):
in the Alice group these days,whether it's healthcare costs or housing, like
we talked about before, Are therecertain things that in more recent years are
creating a bigger and bigger problem forfamilies to pull themselves out of that Alice
threshold. Well, we dig intoeach one of those, Brian, and
(24:18):
they are all increasing right now.So housing we already touched upon that low
income housing childcare is so important.It's we call it the workforce behind the
workforce, Alice needs to be ableto afford to take their child to childcare,
and yet so many of those childcareworkers are themselves Alice. So there's
(24:41):
a real conundrum of industry that's notworking according to market dynamics. And we've
been working with a lot of ourpartners on pilots exploring ways to improve that
childcare system, getting money in fortuition assistants, getting subsidies in, or
some of those providers who are workingin tough neighborhoods and hearing that folks need
(25:06):
more childcare. They need it beforework, you know, traditional work hours,
they need it after traditional work hours, and they need it on the
weekend. You know, Alice isworking twenty four to sevent these days to
keep our economy running. Kieren,let me turn back to you for a
moment. How can everyone go toUnited for Alice dot org and kind of
digest some of this information? Andobviously, I mean, there's so much
(25:30):
here. What are some suggestions ifpeople want to learn more about a lot
of what we've talked about so far. I think the best place to start
is, really, as you said, Ryan, is to visit the website
and you know, really look atyour your state, and then there's there's
lots of easy ways to navigate thestate information and toggle over you a heat
(25:52):
map to look at your county oryou know, as a collection of counties
and really understand kind of the basicnumber that we've been talking about, the
percentage of households that are Alice,the percentage of households that are in poverty.
And then from there, you know, it really depends on what you're
interested in. We have, asyou said, many many tools. Really
(26:14):
depends on kind of what your vantagepoint is and whether or not you are
working in the nonprofit sector on aparticular issue such as housing, or whether
you are a government official and youreally want to really legislator and you want
to understand your constituency and all thevarying issues in your constituency. So it
really depends. But we have,you know, as Stephanie said, something
(26:36):
called the Economic Viability Dashboard where youcan really drill down and look at housing
and other issues in the community andwhat that means for ALICE families when there
are supports and changes around the availabilityof housing and other services. We have
an election excuse me, and alegislative district tool where You can sort the
(26:56):
Dallas data by not only federal butstate legislative district, which is very powerful,
very helpful. We have a wagetool, you know, we have
a million million and those are justa few. We have a million different
ways of indicators where you can lookat Alice relative to food, desert childcare,
deserts, libraries, you know,all all different kinds of indicator analysis.
(27:19):
So I think it's it's get onthe website, see what interests you,
and then really reach out reach outto our team. We respond to
a lot of inquiries from folks whoare looking for something that maybe they didn't
see, or they are looking forsomething new and different. You know,
everything that Stephanie's talked about, alot of that those data and those tools
(27:41):
really came from requests from the field, from the communities, from folks inquiring,
and so we love to hear youknow, how people are using the
data and then also you know adifferent requests for it. And the last
thing I'll say, because I knowwe're short on time, is we would
really encourage your listeners to if theydo have and Alice story themselves or they
(28:02):
know someone who'd be willing to sharetheir Alice story to please go to Alicevoice's
dot org. You know that youcan reach it right from our website.
It's right there when you get ontothe landing page. And we're really looking
to, as I said, collectstories directly from Alice families and make sure
that we're able to amplify those storiesin partnership with the data. Because when
(28:26):
you bring the personal narrative and storyand you combine it with the data,
that's when we see, you know, long term systemic change happen again.
You can find all of that atUnited for Alice dot org. That's United
for Alice dot org to sift throughthe research and the information we've been discussing.
If you are someone who is Alice, you're in that Alice threshold and
(28:51):
you're in need of help, youcan go to to one one dot org
or call to one one to connectwith different supportive services. Again, if
you're listening right now and you're partof that Alice group and your need of
some assistance, call two one oneor go to two one one dot org
for more information. Kieran Honda Gaudioso, President and CEO of the United Way
(29:15):
of Northern New Jersey and president ofUnited for Alice and doctor Stephanie Hoops,
National Director for United for Alice Kieran, Doctor Hoops, thank you both so
much for coming on the show.We really appreciate it. Good conversation.
Thanks Brian, thank you, Thanksso much. Ryan. All Right,
and that's going to do it forthis edition of iHeartRadio Communities. As we
wrap things up, I want tooffer a big thanks to all of our
(29:36):
guests and of course to all ofyou for listening. If you want to
hear previous episodes of this show,we're on your iHeartRadio app. Just search
for iHeartRadio Communities. I'm your host, Ryan Gorman. We'll talk to you
again real soon.
Host
Manny Munoz
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