| Impact on ALICE households | Impact on Community | |
| Housing | ||
| Live in substandard housing | Inconvenience; health and safety risks; increased maintenance costs | Worker stressed, late, and/or absent from job—less productive |
| Move farther away from job | Longer commute; costs increase; less time for other activities | More traffic on road; workers late to job |
| Homeless | Disruption to job, family, school, etc. | Costs for homeless shelters, foster care system, health care |
| Child Care and Education | ||
| Substandard child care | Safety and learning risks; health risks; limited future employment opportunity | Future burden on education and social services; less productive worker |
| No child care | One parent cannot work; foregoing immediate income and future promotions | Further burden on education system and other social services |
| Substandard public education | Learning risks; limited earning potential/mobility; limited career opportunity | Stressed parents; future burden on social services |
| FOOD | ||
| Less healthy | Poor health; obesity | Less productive worker/student; future burden on health care system |
| Not enough | Poor daily functioning | Even less productive; future burden on social services and health care system |
| TRANSPORTATION | ||
| Old car | Unreliable transportation; risk of accidents; increased maintenance costs | Worker stressed, late, and/or absent from job—less productive |
| No insurance/registration | Risk of fine; accident liability; risk of license being revoked | Higher insurance premiums; unsafe vehicles on the road |
| Long commute | Less time for other activities; more costly | More traffic on road; workers late to job; greater burden on road maintenance services |
| No car | Limited employment opportunities and access to health care/child care | Reduced economic productivity; higher taxes for specialized public transportation; greater burden on emergency vehicles |
| Health and health care | ||
| Underinsured | Forego preventative health care; more out-of-pocket expense | Workers report to job sick; spread illness; less productive; absenteeism |
| No insurance | Forego preventative health care; use Emergency Department for non-emergency care | Higher insurance premiums for all to fill the gap; more expensive health costs |
| Income | ||
| Low wages | Longer work hours; pressure on other family members to work (drop out of school); no savings | Worker stressed, late, and/or absent from job—less productive; higher taxes to fill gap |
| No wages | Cost of looking for work and finding social services | Less productive society; higher taxes to fill gap |
| Savings | ||
| Minimal savings | Mental stress; crises; risk taking; use costly alternative financial systems to bridge gaps | More workers facing crisis; unstable workforce; community disruption |
| No savings | Crises spiral quickly, leading to homelessness, hunger, illness | Costs for homeless shelters, foster care system, emergency health care |
Reference: United Way ALICE Report – Pacific Northwest 2015