Click here to subscribe today or Login.
More than 40 percent of Luzerne County households — nearly 51,000 of 126,811 — struggle to pay for basic needs, according to a new analysis by the United Way of Pennsylvania. The highest rates in the county are in Shickshinny and Plymouth boroughs, each more than double the county rate at 59 percent, though others aren’t much better.
The cities of Pittston and Wilkes-Barre each at a rate of 58 percent, while Edwardsville, Nanticoke and West Hazleton at 55 percent. Others municipalities with at least half of the households financially struggling were Hazle Township at 54 percent, Luzerne and Nescopeck boroughs at 53 percent, Hazleton at 52 percent and Hanover Township at 50 percent.
The numbers come from the United Way of Pennsylvania’s new project with the acronym name of ALICE — Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. ALICE was designed to show how many people are working but still struggling to survive — people, the report says “who may earn more than the official Federal Poverty Level, but still cannot afford the basic necessities for their family.
United Way devised a “household survival budget” for each county, then compared household incomes to that budget. The survival budget for a single adult in Luzerne County is $20,220; for two adults with one infant and one preschooler, it is $60,960. In Luzerne County, 31 percent of households are within the ALICE guidelines, while another 13 percent are at or below the federal poverty level, meaning 41 percent total struggle to meet basic needs.
Both the report and United Way of Wyoming Valley President Bill Jones use the ALICE acronym to personify the problem.
“The report helps us better understand where ALICE lives,” Jones said. “It helps us know where we could focus the work we do and what are the things ALICE needs most. It won’t change the fact that we will always continue to work on the issues of childhood poverty, but we know now that 39 percent of households with children in Luzerne County are ALICE Households. The data will help us guide where our resources should go to help those children.
“These are hardworking people who are living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to make ends meet, and who are one emergency away from financial ruin,” Jones said.
Data for Luzerne County in the report shows ALICE does live everywhere. None of the municipalities had single digit percentages of ALICE households. Only four were below 20 percent: Bear Creek Village at 13 percent, Jeddo at 15 percent and Penn Lake Borough and Jackson Township at 18 percent.
Jones said that, while the ALICE project is new to Pennsylvania, this isn’t the first year it’s been used overall. He said ALICE calculations have been made for about a decade in New Jersey.
“ALICE is your child care worker, the cashier at your supermarket, the salesperson at your big box store, your waitress, a home health aide, an office clerk,” Jones said.