For the second year, almost half of New Mexico residents — 42% — are living below what United Way calls their survival budget. The second annual ALICE report was just released, highlighting the group of people who make too much money for assistance, but not enough to pay for everything they need every month.
ALICE is an acronym coined by United Way in 2009 that stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. President and CEO of United Way of North Central New Mexico Rodney Prunty said people who fall into the category are often working jobs that are the bedrock of the economy, and yet they’re one mishap away from abject poverty.
“Oftentimes folks will say, well, all you gotta do is get a job, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and you'll be good to go. Well, that's exactly what the ALICE population is doing, and jobs that matter to our economy, yet again, still they're struggling”
Prunty said when compiling the report, researchers dig into local costs to determine the minimum required to get by for different types of families, and they draw on publicly available census and government labor data.
For example, according to the report a single person in Bernalillo would need to take home a little more than $31,000 per year, whereas a family of four with one infant and one child in pre-school would need to make almost $94,000 per year to make ends meet.
Expenses tallied into ALICE’s survival budget include housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, technology, taxes and miscellaneous necessities.
The data can be used, Prunty said, not only to raise awareness, but also to influence state, local and federal policy to help provide solutions for people struggling to get by. Prunty said his United Way of Central New Mexico is also hoping to offer direct assistance starting in 2027.
“We're in conversations related to standing up a financial empowerment center,” Prunty said, “which would be a one-stop shop for the ALICE population to receive training on workforce development to get financial literacy coaching, financial coaching in general, so it's a whole host of services in one spot.”
Prunty said single mothers are the biggest proportion of ALICE households, with 73% of single moms in New Mexico falling below the ALICE threshold. But Jeanette Brahl statewide director for ALICE, said seniors are catching up as baby boomers age.
“50% of households headed by people 65 and over live below the Alice threshold,” Brahl said. “This is the fastest growing age group to be ALICE in New Mexico, rising 57% between 2010 and 2024.”
Brahl said ALICE is a more appropriate indicator of poverty than the federal poverty level, because it includes items considered necessities in the modern world.
“When the federal poverty level was designed, it was based on groceries,” she said. “Taking into consideration health care costs, technology, other kinds of costs that aren't included in that measure, it's no surprise that so many resources are available for people, 200% of the federal poverty level, 300% of the federal poverty level, because it's just woefully inadequate to describe real need.”
This year’s overall numbers are down a bit, with only 42% of the state's population falling below the ALICE threshold, compared to last year’s 46%. This is only the second year the report has been compiled for New Mexico.
Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
