Sherece West, president and CEO of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, discusses how Arkansans in the ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) population struggle to make ends meet at an announcement in Sherwood on Oct. 15, 2024. (Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate)
SHERWOOD — State policies that facilitate transportation, encourage affordable housing and address medical debt would help Arkansans who have steady jobs but still struggle to make ends meet, organization leaders said Tuesday.
Members with the Arkansas Asset Funders Network noted that nearly half of Arkansas’ 1.2 million households in 2022 fell below the ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) threshold for survival, which is defined as the minimum average income that a household needs to afford basic costs
Though people in the approximately 563,000 households work one or several jobs, they’re still struggling to survive and are left with a tight budget for necessities like housing, food and health care costs, according to a report from United for ALICE, a nonprofit coalition dedicated to research and solutions about poverty.
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Sherece West, president and CEO of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, on Tuesday said helping the ALICE population is a two-pronged challenge that includes increased wages and proactive policy.
“We’re talking about people with jobs,” West said. “So, it is a wage challenge, but it’s also a policy challenge because many of these workers are accessing public assistance. We don’t want to have policies that hurt 47% of our families.”
West recommended lawmakers consider Medicaid expansions, accessible child care vouchers and incentives for affordable housing. Policymakers should also ensure the state isn’t turning away or redirecting funds that could help families in need, she said.
West and others in the health care industry shared the importance of expanding education efforts about the ALICE population and implementing policies within the workplace that benefit those living on a strained budget.
Mollie Palmer with the Heart of Arkansas United Way announces a new ALICE@Work initiative that focuses on company-specific strategies to improve the lives of those struggling financially. ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained and Employed. Photographed in Sherwood on Oct. 15, 2024. (Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate)
Along with an announcement for a new website, data from the most recent Arkansas-specific report and a user-friendly artificial intelligence chat bot to help interpret that data, leaders announced a new program called ALICE@Work and the companies involved.
For its inaugural cohort, ALICE@Work will collaborate with Encore Bank, Southern Bancorp and Diamond Lakes Federal Credit Union over the next two months to analyze strategies to support their employees who may be struggling financially.
Phillip Jett, CEO of Encore Bank, said he was excited to be a part of the group and recognized that stable employees lead to better service and stronger communities.
Encore Bank CEO Phillip Jett talks about the importance of supporting employees who struggle financially at an announcement about the ALICE (Asset Limited, Income constrained, Employed) population in Sherwood on Oct. 15, 2024. (Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate)
“We know that this is not something that one political party, one politician, one leader, one community leader can fix,” Jett said. “It’s going to take all of us in a very collaborative, unified effort to make a difference.”
Officials are currently working to recruit participants for the next cohort, and the initiative isn’t limited to traditional companies. For example, municipalities can join to discover ways their employees can earn a livable wage, West said.
Data specific to the ALICE population in Arkansas is relatively new, and the first report was published in March 2020.
“It was a groundbreaking look at the financial vulnerability of our state based on actual costs of a bare bones budget at the county level,” said Rebecca Pattillo, executive director of the Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas.
An updated report shows the number of Arkansas households that are living paycheck to paycheck has continued to rise, Pattillo said.
“The ALICE report is not just about numbers, it’s about real people, real families who are working hard but yet still falling behind,” she said. “It’s clear that while progress has, in fact, been made, our work is far from done.”
Officials asked the approximately 50 people in attendance at the announcement — primarily community and organization leaders — to share information about the ALICE population with their networks to further the conversation in hopes of implementing change.
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Editor’s note: The Arkansas Advocate received a grant from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation earlier this year to publish stories about the ALICE population. The Advocate fulfilled its grant requirements prior to this article.