Making a comfortable living may be taking more to accomplish in Liberty County.
The United Way of the Coastal Empire’s ALICE — Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed — data shows 54% of Liberty County is living below the ALICE threshold, the line where a family of four can make ends meet.
Members of the Liberty County Development Authority were presented with the most recent figures on the United Way’s ALICE data collection and how Liberty County stands in comparison with neighboring counties and the state.
According to the United Way’s data, the 2023 ALICE household survival budget for a single adult was $33,876, meaning that one person had to have a job paying $16.94 an hour. The data includes costs for housing, food, transportation, health care, technology, child care and tax payments.
For a family of four, the ALICE threshold was $78,804, meaning the hourly wage for two adults has to be a combined $39.40 an hour.
What those numbers mean, according to the United Way of the Coastal Empire chief operating officer Leia Dedic, is a family is working but is not making quite enough.
“They usually have little or no savings,” she said of those at or below the ALICE threshold. “Inflation hits harder, and they are earning too much to get public assistance.”
While the poverty level remains constant, the ALICE threshold is adjusted for the area and the cost of living, Dedic said. While the federal poverty level remains flat, ALICE is increasing, Dedic said.
It also can vary widely from county to county. The ALICE threshold in Emanuel County is $67,000; for Forsyth County, it’s $110,000.
“Financial hardship is increasing,” she added. “It’s just not measured properly.”
The number of people living below the ALICE threshold in the state dropped from 48% to 45%. But that figure rose 9% for Liberty County.
“We know that Liberty County and Long County have a lot of needs,” Dedic said.
Oconee County, at 33%, had the lowest percentage of people living below the ALICE threshold. Wheeler County, at 83%, was the highest. The figures can be done by neighborhood, which means they also can fluctuate within a county — some neighborhoods in Fulton County were at 16%, and others were as high as 74%.
The survival budget, Dedic pointed out, is not enough money to allow a family to thrive. ALICE weighs a stability budget and for a family of four in Liberty County, that requires $121,000 a year.
“That’s difficult,” she said. “You need two family members earning 30 dollars an hour.”
To reach that means having high-wage jobs.
“That’s why the work of this organization is so critical,” Dedic said to the LCDA.
“Our job is to bring jobs that will lift people to that level where they can make a good living and sustain it,” said state Rep. Al Williams, the chairman of the LCDA.
Brynn Grant, the CEO of the LCDA, was CEO of the United Way of the Coastal Empire before taking her current role. She said the LCDA is using ALICE data to drive its incentives packages for potential industries.
Dedic said the United Way is using the data it gets from its 211 service to help form its efforts, and they have seen how such issues as transportation and child care are barriers to getting above the ALICE threshold. The UWCE also hopes to use the ALICE data to attract grant funding and already has attracted the attention of a national funder, she said.
“They want to use their dollars where they have the highest impact,” she said.