Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Battle Creek series.
 
 
CALHOUN, CO. — Challenges continue for residents of Battle Creek and Calhoun County who represent a growing number of people living at or below a budgetary threshold — which is above the Federal Poverty Level of $27,750, but well below what is required to meet basic needs.
 
For a family of four, that threshold was $78,684 in 2022 making them a part of the ALICE (Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed) population which has become a major focus of United Ways across the United States, including the United Way of South Central Michigan The UWSCMI serves a six-county region which includes Calhoun County.
 
In its 6th annual ALICE Report released in May, the Michigan Association of United Ways shared that data collected between 2021 and 2022 showed that of the 4,056,442 households in Michigan, 1,671,196 or 41%, were below the ALICE Threshold. Calhoun County was three percentage points above that statewide number with 44% of its 53,388 households living below that ALICE threshold.
 
Natalie O'Hagan, Senior Director of Strategy and Culture for UWSCMI“I think unfortunately it wasn’t too surprising,” says Natalie O’Hagan, Senior Director of Strategy and Culture for UWSCMI. “We have continued to see year over year ALICE rates continue to climb. This latest report affirmed this for us. What is unique about this report is that it matches a lot of the experiences in our communities where wages and pay have gone up and people have continued to struggle. The Cost of Living Index for our families shows that costs are outpacing their wages and these concerns continue to grow.”
 
The ALICE Reports include a Survival Budget for various types of households including single individuals, families of four, single-parent headed, and adults over age 65. These budgets include basic necessities to get by, not get ahead.
 
Financial hardship affects different demographic groups differently. Black (61% below the ALICE Threshold), Hispanic (47%) and multi-racial (46%) households are more likely to fall below the ALICE Threshold than White (38%) households. Likewise, single-headed households with children, those headed by adults under age 25, and those headed by adults 65 and older are also more likely to struggle financially, says a UWSCMI press release.
 
“A single adult in the region must earn $2,378 every month to cover the most basic of needs that equates to a full-time hourly wage of $14.27,” the press release says. “A family of four, with two adults and two children, needs $6,329 every month to meet those basics. That’s a full-time hourly wage of $37.97. These are paycheck-to-paycheck survival budgets, where one unplanned expense can send a household into poverty.”
 
Taxes, technology, healthcare, transportation, food, housing, and childcare represent those basics, as outlined in the report.
 
Of these, “Childcare remains one of the highest Survival Budget costs for households with children, and the childcare system is still feeling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the report says. “Provider shortages and lack of affordable care present fewer options for parents. According to the October 2023 Household Pulse Survey, when families in Michigan were asked what they did when child care was closed, unavailable, or unaffordable, the most common responses for respondents below the ALICE Threshold were to cut work hours (37%) and to take unpaid leave (28%).
 
CourtesyJen Hsu-Bishop, Chief Equity Officer for United Way of South Central Michigan“To be financially stable, which means being able to cover basic needs plus build some savings, a single adult in our region needs $4,104 every month. That’s a full-time hourly wage of $24.62,” says Jen Hsu-Bishop, Executive Impact & Equity Officer for UWSCMI.  “A four-person family needs $10,952 monthly, or $65.71 an hour, to be financially stable. Yet nearly three-quarters of the top 20 occupations in Michigan pay less than $20 an hour. That means thousands of people in our communities are working full-time but don’t earn enough to make ends meet.”
 
Leaders agree there’s a lot of work to do and UWSCMI is bringing together the resources and partners to move that work forward, both locally and regionally. This includes UWSCMI’s Program Assistance Center which connects people to utility assistance; its Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program which provides free tax preparation; and the Continuum of Care activities that make sure families have a roof over their heads, in addition to addressing many more needs and challenges.
 
More than words and data
 
At the end of July UWSCMI announced that local support and outside grants in 2023-24 totaled more than $23.6 million to drive efforts addressing financial hardship and basic needs among households across the six counties it serves. UWSCMI also says it began the next round of local allocations — unrestricted dollars from United Way donors to fund local programs and partners tackling specific needs focused on the ALICE population — totaling over $3.3 million.
 
“We prioritize programs serving the ALICE population,” says Andrea Macklin, UWSCMI’s Associate Director of Community Impact for Kalamazoo and Battle Creek. “We had three priority areas for basic needs.”
 
Andrea Macklin, UWSCMI’s Associate Director of Community Impact for Kalamazoo and Battle CreekThese areas include programs that provide pathways to help lift families above the ALICE threshold and programs focused on building community to meet the needs of the ALICE population such as community centers or advocacy work.
 
Among the new grantees in Battle Creek this year is “Catching the Dream Learning Center,” a childcare center housed in the Burma Center which is staffed by members of the Burmese community and open to any child in Battle Creek.
 
“If you have kids, it’s difficult to find childcare so that you can work,” Macklin says.
 
Other grantees are VOCES, which is “being tasked to meet all of the needs of Calhoun County’s Latinx community. They’re not new for us and they continue to do really great work,” Macklin says.
 
“Milk Like Mine is another group meeting a very specific need,” she says. “Infant and mortality rates are higher for Black mothers in this region. Milk Like Mine offers a range of programs and services.”
 
The 60 programs in Battle Creek and Kalamazoo that received UWSCMI funding were required to serve people living at or below the ALICE threshold. Macklin says.
 
“We received $13.4 million in requests from Battle Creek and Kalamazoo combined and had $3.3 million to allocate,” she says.
 
Fifty-nine agencies operating 60 programs in Battle Creek and Kalamazoo received close to $2.8 million of the total funds available with the remainder going to agencies in Jackson County and the Capital Area.
 
“Local allocations are only part of our overall investments, but they’re critical to targeting specific needs at a local level,” says Jen Hsu-Bishop, Executive Impact & Equity Officer for UWSCMI. “Those investments emphasize the needs of people in financial hardship, including ALICE households, those experiencing poverty, and persons who have been historically oppressed and marginalized.”
 
For every dollar given, UWSCMI was able to attract an additional $3.28 into its six-county region, they say.
 
These are funding the basic needs of the ever-increasing ALICE population such as food, shelter, hygiene products, and phone and internet access which is a necessary by-product of a technology-driven society, Macklin says.