CHENANGO COUNTY – Almost half of all families living in Chenango County cannot afford the basic cost of living or are barely treading water, according to the United Way's ALICE Project report published this September.

Every two years, the United Way releases its ALICE report, which uses "standardized measurements to calculate the cost of a bare-bones household budget in each county in each state, and to quantify the number of households that cannot afford even that."

According to the ALICE report published in September, which looks at 2016 data, 33 percent of Chenango County households fall under the ALICE category: Asset Limited, Income Restrained, Employed.

Chenango United Way Executive Director Elizabeth Monaco said, "Our families are working, and working two to three jobs, but they're not making enough money."

It's a three percent increase in Chenango County's ALICE population since the last report was published in 2016, and combined with 15 percent of households in the county living in poverty, 48 percent of all households in Chenango are not financially stable.

"So if everything is balanced and nothing goes wrong, an ALICE family is usually critical but stable," said Monaco. "But then one thing goes wrong, and everything is screwed. It just all falls apart really fast and then to try to become stable again takes forever."