Full employment and an income level above the federal poverty line do not guarantee that a family of four living in Greater Washington will be able to easily afford food, housing, access to health care and other basic needs.
That’s the finding of a new report from the United Way of the National Capital Area in partnership with United for ALICE, a United Way affiliate. ALICE is an acronym the international nonprofit organization uses to describe households that are Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. The report found that beyond the 176,744 households in the region living at or under the federal poverty line in 2021, another 487,967 were considered ALICE households, meaning they technically live above the federal poverty line but don’t earn nearly enough to cover the real cost of living.
And that number of income-constrained households has continued to rise as living costs have soared, according to the report, titled “ALICE in the Crosscurrents,” released Tuesday.
The real cost of living for a family of four in Greater Washington — which the report calls the household survival budget — was $101,281 in 2021. By comparison, the federal poverty line for a family of four was $26,500 that year.
