NHCOG Meeting Features Presentation on United Way's Focus, Needs of Families in Rural Communitites

Leaders from the United Way of Northwest Connecticut gave a presentation to Northwest Hills Coalition of Governments (NHCOG) officials at NHCOG’s Oct. 9 meeting. The meeting took place at the American Mural Project in the town of Winsted.

The presentation, delivered by United Way Executive Director Lisa Ferris and Board of Directors Chair Cathy Coyle, centered on the organization’s efforts to help families who do not qualify for government assistance but are still facing economic struggles. The presentation comes at a time when some members of NHCOG have said the municipalities they represent are seeing increases in need for financial assistance for families.

At the meeting, Ferris told NHCOG members about United Way’s new focus: families who are asset-limited, income constrained, and employed. These groups are known as ALICE families, Ferris said. For these families, the costs of housing and childcare make up about 50% of total housing earnings, according to the United Way’s website.

About 60% of workers in Connecticut make less than an hourly wage of $20, which the United Way estimated would likely make these workers part of ALICE families. Around 40% of households in the state are ALICE families, the organization estimated on its website.

“These are families working two or three jobs. They don't qualify for any funding through any programs,” Ferris said. “They don’t qualify for HUSKY or [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits], but they can't afford to put food on the table and send their child to childcare. They're struggling.”

United Way first had to determine areas of need, Ferris said. To do so, the organization analyzed data from its 211 service line. 211 is a hotline operated in partnership by the United Way and the federal government that connects residents to local social services.

“The biggest needs are housing, food insecurity, and transportation. Transportation is one of the biggest ones,” Ferris said. “So that's something that we really want to work on. We're focusing on programs in our community that help meet those needs.”

So far,  the organization has distributed 3,800 pounds of food to 12 food banks at pantries all over northwest Connecticut, Ferris noted.

“We don't just focus on Torrington or Winstead,” Ferris said. “We go out to Lakeville, Salisbury, those food pantries out there.”

The organization also started a rapid response fund in North Canaan that has helped 12 families so far this year.

“We help them with minor things that they otherwise wouldn't be able to afford. There was a mom, her back windshield was hit with a tree that knocked out her windshield,” Ferris said. “She was driving around with two kids in car seats with a garbage bag in her back window. With the rapid response fund, we were able to get a back window and drive her kids around safely.”

Coyle said the numbers of ALICE families, and their needs, have increased in the past 6 years. Rural areas, she added, have seen the highest growth in the number of ALICE families.

Michael Criss, the town of Harwinton’s first selectman, said several families in his community are struggling. He added that Harwinton has middle class families caught in between making too much money to receive government benefits, but not financially solvent enough to get by.

“You go door to door and they're telling you: ‘I'm doing everything I can to hold on to my home,’” Criss said. “I think it's becoming more and more prevalent in the rural communities. There are families who can't even buy groceries.”

When Harwinton opened its food pantry in 2013, the pantry was regularly feeding five or six families consistently, Criss said.

“We're up to 56 families now,” he added.

Coyle said that the steepest growth in the number of ALICE families in Connecticut in recent years has occurred in the town of Salisbury. According to United Way data cited by Coyle at the meeting, the number of ALICE families in Salisbury has increased by 15% from 2019 to 2023. Coyle said that trend shows the biggest increases tend to show in rural areas.

To comfortably live in Connecticut and be above the ALICE family threshold, Coyle said, a family of four would have to make around $116,000 a year. Coyle said that is about a $58 hourly wage.

“At $20 an hour, you need three full time jobs to hit that a month,” she said. “That is a lot of the families here. We're going to really focus on, how do we really make a difference?”