ALICE in the Hudson Valley
2020
The ALICE project by United Way is an effort to quantify and describe the number of households that are struggling financially but not typically captured by traditional measures of poverty. ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. In other words, “ALICE households” represent working families who earn enough to be above the federal poverty line, but are still struggling to afford basic living essentials.
The most recent data from the ALICE project, released in August 2020, shows that many households in the Hudson Valley are struggling to make ends meet. In the nine-county region of the Hudson Valley, 39% of households are below the ALICE threshold including 10% that are below the federal poverty line. Within the Hudson Valley, the rural counties of Greene and Sullivan have the highest percentage of households below the ALICE threshold. In fact, among all counties in New York State, Greene County has the 5th highest percentage of households below the ALICE threshold, and Sullivan County has the 9th highest.
