EMBARGOED UNTIL 2PM ON JUNE 18, 2020
ALOHA UNITED WAY RELEASES NEW ALICE® REPORT AND PROJECTED COVID-19 IMPACT ON ALICE HOUSEHOLDS TO ASSIST WITH STATE’S RECOVERY PLANS Hawaii’s ALICE® Population Could Increase by 35,000 Households in the Wake of COVID-19 HONOLULU, HAWAII – June 18, 2020 – Today Aloha United Way (AUW) released its “2020 ALICE in Hawaii: A Financial Hardship Study.” The report was again sponsored by AUW partners: Bank of Hawaii Foundation, Hawaii Community Foundation and Kamehameha Schools. The 2020 AUW ALICE® Report indicates there has been no improvement since 2010 in the number of ALICE in Hawaii despite steady economic improvements according to traditional measures. Hawaii’s unemployment fell to record lows, GDP grew and wages rose slightly over the past two years (preCOVID-19). Yet eight years after the end of the Great Recession, 42* percent (190,390 households) of Hawaii’s 455,138 households still struggle to make ends meet. The 2020 AUW ALICE Report shows three critical trends in Hawaii pre-COVID-19: 1. The cost of living is increasing for ALICE households. The cost of household essentials (housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, phone and taxes) is rising faster than the cost of other goods and services. 2. Worker vulnerability is growing while wages stagnate in ALICE jobs. The only growth is concentrated in low-wage jobs with no growth in mid- and high-wage jobs that pay a living wage. 3. The number of ALICE households is on the rise. While the number of households in poverty has remained relatively flat from 2007 to 2018, the number of ALICE households has continued to increase as a result of rising costs and stagnant wages. The COVID-19 pandemic has unveiled and exacerbated economic disparities because of the vulnerabilities identified in the ALICE Reports. AUW 211 helpline calls immediately increased and are now stabilized at a volume of 600 percent more than pre-COVID-19. The top three requests for assistance are housing/shelter, healthcare and employment/income, which align with the trends identified in the latest ALICE Report. AUW partnered with Hawaii Data Collaborative to estimate the potential impact in the near and longer term to help guide the state’s recovery plan. HDC modeling estimates that, without intervention, the sudden economic shock that resulted from measures implemented to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 increased the percent of ALICE and below households to 59 percent from 42 percent pre-COVID-19. That represents an additional 78,000 vulnerable households on top of the 190,390 that were already -more-