State and local leaders need to take a long, hard look at a new economic report from Trident United Way and come up with ways to help struggling families, instead of generally ignoring their needs like they’ve done for generations.
According to the newly-released study, more than one-third of households in Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties are struggling to pay for basics. This strife involves some 35,822 households that live in poverty. It’s also rampant among the 93,767 households where breadwinners work, but just don’t have enough money to meet their needs.
This larger group is defined as “asset-limited, income-constrained and employed,” also known as “ALICE” households. Family members in these households may have more than one job but still often struggle to pay for housing, child care, food, transportation and health care.
In the Tri-county area, a family of four that earns less than $91,000 a year is considered to be an ALICE household where basics are a struggle. When you add debt, emergency expenses and anything beyond everyday expenditures, the struggle is starker.
Put frankly, the 7% of area residents in poverty plus the 30% of area ALICE households live in a world of financial instability where leaders too often blather on about affordability when they want to be reelected. But once in power, they seem to do little to address the real needs of working families. Many seem obsessed, rather, with lowering taxes of the wealthiest of South Carolinians.
TUW President and CEO D.J. Hampton has succinctly observed, “These are not abstract numbers. These families in our community who are working hard, raising children, caring for loved ones and keeping our region moving, yet still [are] one expense away from crisis. Far too many families are doing everything right and still cannot get ahead.”
Trident United Way has a lofty goal of working to uplift area families by bringing 15,000 out of poverty through coaching them financially on setting goals, increasing income, decreasing debt, building credit and finding resources that can help.
That’s good, but more needs to be done by local and state governments to set policies that focus on the bottom half of residents who power the state’s success. Five examples:
- Better pay. South Carolina doesn’t have a minimum wage. State lawmakers should set a living minimum wage to lift incomes, which will also boost business.
- Housing. Local governments should focus even more than they are to get more affordable housing built that allows residents to partner and own their homes.
- Health care. Expand Medicaid to add 400,000 people to the state’s insurance rolls, which will dramatically improve health outcomes — and help to keep struggling hospitals open.
- Food. Reduce food deserts, particularly in rural areas, and connect people with healthier lifestyles. Make it a big outreach effort that blasts traditional and social media.
- Education. Make improvements that focus more on positive outcomes. Teacher pay has been rising dramatically thanks to state efforts. But now it’s time to benefit from what we’re paying for so that students can be more ready for better work.
What’s ahead for South Carolina isn’t easy, but it’s time for state and local leaders to get down to work to make real differences for people who struggle. Continuing the same old mess isn’t going to make South Carolina a better place for everyone.
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