RESILIENCE AND RISK FACTORS

Percent Of Households With Risk Factors

Percent of Households with Three or More Risk Factors

The United States Census Bureau CRE (Community Resilience Estimate) Interactive Tool provides a metric for how at-risk communities are to the impacts of disasters, including COVID-19. How communities respond to disasters impacts their speed and level of recovery.

The difference in the makeup of communities directly relates to their ability to respond to disasters. Some communities are less likely to have the resources to overcome the challenges of a disaster. The CRE Tool can provide information specific to the IND15RPC region to help identify potential impacts and develop resources and tools to reduce a disaster’s potential effects.

Individual and household characteristics from the 2019 American Community Survey (ACS) are modeled by the U.S. Census Bureau, in combination with data from the Population Estimates Program to create the CRE.

Risk factors from the 2019 ACS include:

• Income to Poverty Ratio

• Single or Zero Caregiver Household

• Crowding

• Communication Barrier

• Households without Full-time, Yearround Employment

• Disability

• No Health Insurance

• Age 65+

• No Vehicle Access

• No Broadband Internet Access

The more risk factors that are present in a community, the more vulnerable that community is to the lasting effects of a disaster. The IND15RPC Region has 22.70 percent of households with three or more risk factors. In the State of Indiana, 20.6 percent of households have three or more risk factors.

ALICE Households: United Way ALICE Project

The United Way identifies households who have incomes above the poverty line but who still struggle to afford basic household necessities. They call these households ALICE households – Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, and Employed. To determine ALICE thresholds, the United Way identifies the cost of basic needs in each county, and the number of households earning below this amount. Statewide, about 37 percent of Hoosiers lived below the ALICE threshold in 2018. The IND15RPC counties ranged from 29-47 percent below the ALICE threshold. Seniors and single households are the most vulnerable in the IND15RPC region with 45-62 percent of ALICE households consisting of seniors. The average survival budget for counties in the region is $1,615 for a single person and $4,035 for a family with two adults and two children. As job uncertainties and unemployment spiked early in the pandemic, ALICE households were likely to fall behind on rent and other bills. Although unemployment has dipped to less than two percent by December of 2021, many ALICE households still struggle to pay the basic survival costs.