By Lauren Wanko
Correspondent
Toms River resident Christine Labrutto browses Ocean County Hunger Relief’s thrift store. It’s one of the few places she can afford to shop.
“My husband works as many hours as he can to try to compensate and he’s lucky if he makes it one paycheck to another paycheck,” she said.
The Labruttos are a part of the ALICE population — Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed — a term coined by the United Way. These are people who earn more than the federal poverty level but less than the basic local cost of living.
“It’s so critical to understand that a huge proportion of our population is struggling financially. It is even more important know that we know there are implications for all of us. Those implications being that we are all dependent on ALICE for many services,” said John Franklin.
The United Way of Northern New Jersey just released its latest ALICE Report for the Garden State. Based on 2012 data, it indicates 38 percent of New Jersey households struggle to afford basic household necessities. That’s 1.2 million families — people in every part of the state of every ethnicity and in all age groups.
“Everything is too expensive. If you pay a bill, you can’t afford to pay another bill. They’re constantly coming. The pay wage doesn’t go up,” said Christine.
The report indicates 53 percent of all jobs in New Jersey pay $20 or less per hour — $40,000 a year full time. Christine says she wishes her husband made nearly that much. He’s a dietary aid for a nursing home. She’s disabled and battling a number of health issues.
“The reason we have so many ALICEs in this community are that there aren’t enough jobs that pay the kind of living that she needs and the cost of living is so high in New Jersey. So you put those two factors together and we have a problem,” said Franklin.
The federal poverty rate for a family of four is $23,050, while the annual household New Jersey survival budget for a family of four is nearly three times that — more than $61,000. Christine and her husband actually moved out of the state because of the high cost of living.
“And we came back cause there was no work out there,” she said.
In Ocean County, 45 percent of households can’t make ends meet.
When things get really tough financially for Christine, she visits the Ocean County Hunger Relief where she’s given food. Typically the faith-based non-profit distributes food to their network of 26 pantries throughout the county, serving more than 6,500 people a month. Half are children.
Christine’s plea to local and federal government officials?
“Come down and listen, hear people’s stories, what they have to say and how they’re living,” she said.
As for Christine, she says she’ll continue to only buy what the couple needs. And her husband plans to keep working.