When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer took office in 2019, just over 1 million working Michiganders were struggling to make ends meet, a predicament researchers label “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed” or ALICE.

By 2022, that figure had swollen to 1,133,874 million residents who could hardly afford basics like housing, food, and child care, despite working full-time.

“Those are families that live above the poverty level, but they do not have the economic means that they need to afford all of the things to be able to life in their community,” according to the United Way’s biennial ALICE report.

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Between 2010 and 2022, the total number of households in Michigan below ALICE thresholds – including those in poverty – jumped by 6%, with half of that increase coming during Whitmer’s tenure. A total of 41% of Michigan households in 2022 struggled to cover the basics. A total of nearly 1.7 million Michiganders are now struggling, compared to about 1.5 million in 2019.

“This consistent trend – growing the number of households that are struggling financially, often ineligible for public assistance, and undercounted by official measures – represents a major vulnerability in our economic system,” according to the report. “It also suggests that overall social and economic policies are falling short in addressing the root causes of financial instability.”

And the problem is quickly getting worse.

“From 2021 to 2022, the ALICE Household Survival Budget for a single adult in Michigan increased from $25,932 to $27,372, well above the (federal poverty level) of $13,590,” the United Way reports. “For a family of four with an infant and a preschooler, the budget (including tax credits) increased from $59,016 to $73,488, well above the FPL of $27,250. Before tax credits, costs for a family of four totaled $78,684, up from $72,792 in 2021.”

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During that same time period, the number of households in poverty remained relatively steady at 13%, increasing 11,568 over the year, while the number of ALICE households jumped by a staggering 88,904 to 28% of all households in Michigan.

“The cost of basics is increasing faster than the overall rate of inflation, as reported by the ALICE Essentials Index,” the report reads. “And it has gotten even harder for ALICE to keep up with bills than at the height of the pandemic.

“According to the Household Pulse Survey, 55% of households below the ALICE Threshold in Michigan reported that it was somewhat or very difficult to pay for usual items such as food, rent or mortgage, car payments, and medical expenses in October 2023, up from 47% in August 2020.”

The ALICE report helps explain what The Detroit News this week described as a “disconnect between reality and what most voters perceive to be the truth” in a recent poll of 600 registered Michigan voters.

Of those polled by the Glengariff Group May 1-5, 61% believe the economy is weakening or in a recession, “even though gross domestic product, or the nation’s economic output, grew 3.4% in the last quarter of 2023, the stock market is up and Michigan unemployment remains low at 3.9%,” the news site reports.

Those measures, of course, avoid the hard reality ALICE households know well: groceries are up 25% since 2020, rents jumped 12.47% in just the last year, gas hit a 2024 high of $3.72 in April, base interest rates are up 500% since the Trump years, vehicle prices have jumped by 27% since 2018, and credit card and medical debt are at all-time highs.

“It’s very hard to rationalize why the level of consumer confidence … is lower today than it was during the Great Recession of 13 years ago,” Detroit Regional Chamber CEO Sandy Baruah, who made $655,035 in 2021, told The News. “Very hard to understand.”