NY’s affordability crisis is bigger than poverty measures showTherese Daly |
New York is facing an affordability crisis that is no longer confined to a single region, income level or household type. Across the state, working families are making difficult choices every day about housing, food, health care, child care and transportation. Increasingly, those choices are not about comfort or convenience, but about basic stability.
Traditional measures of poverty do not fully capture the scope of this challenge. In 2024, 14% of New York households fell below the federal poverty level. But that measure alone misses a much larger group of families who are still struggling.
An additional 34% of households fall into a category known as ALICE, which stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. These households earn above the poverty line but still do not make enough to afford the basic cost of living in their communities.
New York households are in crisis
Combined, 48% of households in New York were below the ALICE threshold in 2024. Nearly half of all households cannot consistently afford the basics. Our families, our friends and our colleagues are likely ALICE households.
Recent ALICE data underscores how narrow the margin is for many working families. The cost of essentials, particularly housing,........