REGIONAL – A new report from United Way on financial insecurity in New York State shows that about 45 percent of households in Ulster County are living on a financial knife edge. The report focuses on so-called ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) households, whose income lies between outright poverty and a minimum "survival budget" that's required to afford housing, food, childcare, healthcare, transportation, taxes and everything else. The ALICE threshold varies across the state depending on local cost of living indexes, but the average for a family of four is $62,472.

These are working families struggling to make ends meet on low wage jobs. Their income takes them out of the poverty band, so they don't qualify for government assistance.

"These are families where if one thing goes wrong, something as simple as a blown tire, it becomes a crisis for the whole family," noted Ulster County United Way CEO Stacey Rein.

ALICE households are everywhere, too... even Marbletown, which has one of the lowest poverty rates in the county at a mere 5 percent, yet has 38 percent of households in the new category. Stone Ridge's 1,454 residents showed 4 percent below poverty and 27% percent in the ALICE band.

An interesting contrast comes from the Town of Shawangunk with 5 percent below the poverty line and only 23 percent in the ALICE band.

In Ellenville, with 14 percent in poverty, 41 percent are ALICE households. Wawarsing, population 13,189, had 12 percent under the poverty line and 38 percent in the ALICE zone.

In the Town of Rochester, 11 percent poverty is matched by a low ALICE figure of just 22 percent. In the Town of Rosendale poverty runs at 8 percent but ALICE is at 39 percent.

Poverty, an income level where families qualify for housing subsidies and temporary cash assistance, is $11, 670 for one person and $23,850 for a family of four. However, in the new ALICE report the income needed for survival in Ulster was calculated at $22,032 for an individual and $71,592 for a family with two adults, an infant and a pre-schooler. Obviously, child care becomes a major expense in such a family.

We should perhaps note here that forty hours at a minimum wage job will not provide enough income to meet that "survival budget" number for an individual. The issues of a lack of demand in the economy and the current controversies over raising the minimum wage are also salient to this topic.

Stacey Rein explained that the ALICE population in includes many single mothers, but also two parent families dependent on low wage jobs. And the economic recovery since the crash of 2008 has not improved the situation. In 2007, 41 percent of households in New York were in the ALICE band. In 2014 that had increased to 43 percent. To a considerable extent these numbers reflect the shift throughout the economy from high paid industrial work to low-skilled, low wage jobs. Moreover, low wage jobs are projected to continue to increase in the next decade, due to the globalization effect on manufacturing and the rising inequality of a "financialized" economy that concentrates rewards at the top.

Sullivan County showed even higher figures, both for ALICE and poverty, at 46 percent and 14 percent, respectively. The Town of Mamakating, with a population of 11,909, had 11 percent living in poverty line and 32 percent in the ALICE band. Wurtsboro had 11 percent in poverty and 31 percent in ALICE. Bloomingburg's population of 453 recorded 16 percent at poverty level or below and 39 percent in ALICE territory.

Orange County had 12 percent living in poverty and 29 percent in ALICE, while the Town of Crawford had 11 percent under the poverty line and 34 percent within the ALICE category.