Community & Economy

Half Our Neighbors Are One Car Repair Away From Crisis

United Way’s ALICE Report shows nearly 50% of Escambia and Santa Rosa households are working hard and still falling short

On this week’s episode of Rick’s Blog Live, I sat down with Jessica Johnson of United Way of West Florida to talk about a report I look forward to every year — the ALICE Report.

ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. These are our teachers, cashiers, service workers and students — people working full-time, sometimes multiple jobs, who still can’t consistently cover food, housing, transportation and child care.

“Their ends may typically look at each other, so to speak, but they don’t always meet,” Johnson said.

The number that stopped me: locally, ALICE households are close to 50% of our community — up from last year’s report. Cost of living keeps climbing while wages haven’t kept pace.

What makes this group different from families on traditional assistance is that they usually don’t qualify for SNAP or housing vouchers. They’re paying out of pocket for nearly everything, which means one bad break — a surprise medical bill, a car accident that wasn’t their fault, a rent increase — can knock them off balance fast.

Johnson pointed to United Way’s 211 hotline, available 24/7, where the agency is seeing a sharp rise in calls for housing-related financial help — rent, utilities, families on the brink of losing their homes.

Johnson’s advice for using the report: treat it as a conversation starter, not just a statistic. Employers can rethink workplace flexibility around child care. Elected officials can use it to shape policy. And residents can use it to tell their own stories about where they’re falling short.

The data itself comes from the U.S. Census and workforce development sources, compiled nationally by United Way of Northern New Jersey, which created the ALICE framework about a decade ago. Local 2025 numbers won’t be available until next year’s report.

Read STATE OF ALICE.