Half of Danbury Lives Below Poverty Line: Report

DANBURY, CT — Fifty percent of Danbury residents go to work each day yet struggle to make ends meet, according to a new report from the United Way.

These households are part of a new demographic the United Way has christened ALICE: Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. More than 1 in 3 households in Western Connecticut are ALICE and struggle to pay for basic necessities, including housing, food, childcare, health care, and transportation, according to the report.

“Despite overall improvement in employment and gains in median income, the economic recovery in Connecticut has been uneven,” the report says. “Many ALICE households continue to face challenges from low wages, reduced work hours, depleted savings, and increasing costs.”

Among the report's key findings:

• Households continue to struggle: Of Connecticut’s 1,357,269 households, 10 percent lived in poverty in
2016 and another 30 percent were ALICE. Combined, 40 percent (538,529 households) had income below
the ALICE Threshold, an increase of 10 percent since 2010.

• Basic cost of living still on the rise: The cost of basic household expenses increased steadily in
Connecticut to $77,832 for a family of four (two adults with one infant and one preschooler) and $24,672
for a single adult, significantly higher than the 2016 FPL of $24,300 for a family and $11,880 for a single
adult. The cost of the family budget increased by 23 percent from 2010 to 2016.

• Changes in the workforce: Unemployment rates are falling and some wages are improving. In
Connecticut, 45 percent of jobs paid less than $20 per hour in 2016, a significant improvement from 54
percent in 2010. At the same time, many ALICE workers are still struggling. An increase in contract jobs
and on-demand jobs has created less stability. Gaps in wages persist and vary, depending on the type of
employer as well as the gender, education, race, and ethnicity of workers.

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“Working households are still struggling due to the mismatch between the basic cost of living and the wages of many jobs across the state, exacerbated by systemic inequalities in opportunity and wealth,” the report states. “By making this clear, the ALICE data challenges persistent assumptions and stereotypes about people who can’t afford to pay their bills or are forced to visit a food bank — that they are primarily people of color, live only in cities, are unemployed, or are struggling as the result of some moral failing. The data on ALICE households shows that hardship in Connecticut exists across boundaries of race/ethnicity, age, and geography.”

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