Earlier this week, we asked the $74,028 question: what it really costs a family of four to get by in Indiana. This week, meet the families living on the wrong side of that number. Those who fall within the ALICE threshold. This acronym stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, and was created by The United Way to describe a group that traditional poverty metrics completely miss: households that earn too much to qualify for assistance but too little to afford the basics.
Who Falls Under ALICE?
ALICE means working adults, these are individuals who are employed, working hard, but not able to support themselves or their dependents on their income. Single young adults and older adults are the largest groups in this category, but families in Indiana also fall here.
ALICE in Indiana in 2026:
- 38% of Indiana households, or 1,052,775 families, lived below the ALICE Threshold in 2026, meaning they couldn’t consistently afford housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, and technology.
- Of those, about 340,000 households lived below the federal poverty level, and more than 712,000 were ALICE: above the poverty line, working, and still unable to make ends meet.
ALICE-identified individuals hold the jobs our communities depend on every day:
- Child care providers
- Cashiers and retail workers
- Cooks, servers, and food service workers
- Nursing assistants and home health aides
- Janitors, cleaners, and maintenance workers
These are the people who care for our families, stock our shelves, and keep our community running, and are, in many cases, the same people who can’t afford to live in it.
Why Doesn’t ALICE Qualify for Help?
Because the official measuring stick is broken:
- The federal poverty level for a family of four is $31,200
- The actual cost of surviving in Indiana for that same family is $74,028
- That leaves a gap of more than $40,000 where families earn “too much” for assistance but far too little for stability
ALICE lives in that gap. Working hard, paying taxes, doing everything right, and still one flat tire away from crisis.
ALICE Is Growing
A few findings from the new 2026 ALICE report worth knowing:
- Hardship doesn’t have a zip code. Financial hardship rates are nearly identical in rural and urban Indiana. ALICE lives in small towns, suburbs, and cities alike.
- Family structure matters enormously. 72% of Indiana households headed by single women and 49% headed by single men were below the ALICE Threshold in 2024.
- The burden isn’t shared equally. 55% of Black households and 43% of Hispanic and multiracial households in Indiana fall below the threshold, compared to 36% of white households.
- The problem is growing. The number of ALICE households in Indiana has trended upward since 2010, even as poverty numbers have held flat. More working families are falling behind in Indiana.
Why “One Emergency Away” Is the Right Way to Say It
An ALICE budget is a survival budget. There’s no savings, no emergency fund, no room for error. So when the emergency comes, and it always comes, there’s nothing to absorb it and this is where life gets scary, and housing becomes unstable:
- The car breaks down, and there’s no way to get to work
- Hours get cut , and this month’s rent comes up short
- A child gets sick, and the ER copay competes with the electric bill
For ALICE, these are the first steps to becoming unhoused.
You Already Know ALICE
ALICE may be your coworker, your neighbor, your child’s teacher’s aide, or the person who checked you out at the grocery store this morning. ALICE may be a relative. ALICE may be you.
That’s exactly why we do this work. At Homeward Bound Villages, we believe the answer to a 38% problem isn’t judgment; it’s affordable, stable housing that working families can actually afford.
Sources:
United For ALICE — State of ALICE in Indiana
