New Hampshire built a wall. It’s called ALICE.
On one side are families who can afford to live here. On the other side are about 1 in 3 New Hampshire households — working people, doing everything right, who still can’t afford the basics in one of the most expensive states in the country.
They can’t climb over it. Every time they get close, the state’s rules pull the ladder away. Earn a little more and you lose your childcare, your health coverage, and the support your family depends on — landing further behind than before. And you can’t just leave, because moving costs money that struggling families don’t have. So they stay. Stuck. Doing everything right, but still falling short.
The wall didn’t happen by accident. The system was built this way. And whether you live behind it or not, you’re paying for it.
The cruelest part isn’t the wall. It’s the ladder.
About 29% of New Hampshire households are ALICE — Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. They aren’t living in poverty. They have jobs and are trying to get ahead, almost over the wall. They represent the state’s best chance for new spending power and a stronger workforce. But as soon as they get close, the rules pull the ladder away. A small raise can cost more in lost childcare, health coverage, and support than it adds. So they slide back and never reach disposable income.
Money that never becomes disposable income never reaches Main Street. The cliff doesn’t just trap families. It also means New Hampshire small businesses lose a third of their potential customers, and employers miss out on the workers they need.
One rule. Both wounds.
ALICE — United For ALICE. “Below the ALICE threshold” combines households in poverty and ALICE households, totaling about 1 in 3 NH households.
What it sounds like to hit the wall
You call the office that’s supposed to help. After all the careful words, you realize your best option is to leave New Hampshire. You hang up and cry, because you already know you can’t afford to leave.
That doesn’t help. It’s the state admitting there’s nothing here for you, while you’re stuck and can’t leave. You’re told you can’t survive here, but you’re also trapped. Both are true at the same time.
A family that has had enough
People have been fighting this in New Hampshire for decades. I’m not the first — just one more family that has had enough.
I’m a single father raising three children. Two of them are on the autism spectrum and the third has a hearing disability.
I didn’t build 603 Circle based on a study. I built it because it’s too hard to be a caregiver, financial provider, constantly fight the systems that are supposed to help, and from what I heard, again and again, from the professionals New Hampshire trusts to help families like mine.
A neurologist told me to take my children out of New Hampshire to get them help, and not to trust the services here. A cardiologist told me plainly that there was no help here for what my family was carrying — and that the stress would eventually put my heart at risk if nothing changed.
A team of specialists at one of New Hampshire’s major teaching hospitals decided that the best plan for my two children with autism was full-time residential placement. It wasn’t because their needs required it. In their view, a single parent in New Hampshire can’t raise two children with a disability and still earn enough to support the family. The recommendation wasn’t about my children. It was about the state’s math.
Sit with that. The system didn’t fail quietly. It looked at my family and said, in clinical terms, that the way to care for my children was to give them up — because surviving here together wasn’t a path it could see.
That’s the wall. I’ve felt it myself. The systems meant to help families like mine — not just that hospital, but also the safety net and employers — all found their own way to say no.
Every time I tell another New Hampshire parent, I hear the same thing back: that happened to us, too.
One family might call it a sad story. But when a thousand families say it, it’s a pattern the state created and must answer for. That’s why this page exists. That’s why your story matters.
— Mark Marquis, Founder, 603 Circle
One wall. A different face for every New Hampshire family.
The same structure shows up differently depending on the seat you hold. Here’s how it lands, group by group.
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Face 1 — The heart
Parents of children with disabilities
This is where 603 Circle began: with families like mine. When you raise a child who isn’t getting enough support, you have to leave work to provide it — therapies, evaluations, IEP meetings, and mid-day crisis calls all happen during working hours, so your income drops. At the same time, raising a child with a disability costs more (research says two to three times the cost of raising a typical child). Costs up while income goes down. Two parents can share that load; a single parent can’t be both the earner and the caregiver at once. And the moment you try to earn your way out, the ladder moves: the federal asset limit for a disabled child’s support has been frozen at $2,000 since 1989, so saving for your child’s future risks the care they need now. High-functioning autism often falls in the middle — too “functional” to qualify for the most help, not supported enough to be okay. That’s the Scissor. It closes on the family doing everything right.
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Face 2 — The cliff
Working parents with dependents
Sometimes a raise actually costs you money. Take an extra shift, a promotion, or a second job and you can lose more in childcare help and health coverage than you gain. The math punishes ambition, so families turn down opportunities because climbing doesn’t add up. That’s not a personal failing. It’s a cliff built into the rules.
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Face 3 — Priced out
Families priced out of a home
The first step is already missing. In New Hampshire, the median home costs about 5.5 times the median household income, and more than half of renters are cost-burdened. You can do everything right and still never reach the bottom of the housing ladder, let alone the top of the wall.
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Face 4 — Customers & workers
Small business owners
You’re hit twice by the same wall. About a third of New Hampshire households have little or no disposable income — a third of your local market that can’t spend, no matter how good your business is. And nearly three in four New Hampshire business leaders say they can’t grow because they can’t find enough workers — the same families, held back. The spending power and the workforce are right there; the wall keeps them out of reach. Help these families over it and they become your customers and your employees.
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Face 5 — Everyone
The whole state pays
When families fall, the cost doesn’t disappear — it lands on everyone. Towns and schools pick up what the state pushed off the ladder, and the bill shows up in local property taxes. New Hampshire pays the lowest state share of public education in the country, so local taxpayers cover most special-education costs. The state spends money to catch the same families it pushed down, instead of helping them climb. That means wasted public money, limited business growth, and less revenue. The wall makes the whole state poorer, and every town helps pay for it.
Each face has a mechanism behind it. We documented them, page by page — see the Cracks.
It’s one wall. We all pay for it.
It just looks different for every New Hampshire family, but every one of them is paying the price. The people behind the wall aren’t asking for a handout. They just want the ladder to hold long enough to climb. If it does, they don’t just get over the wall — they become the workers, customers, and taxpayers who make every New Hampshire community stronger.
Sources
- United For ALICE (NH, 2024 data release); about 1 in 3 New Hampshire households fall below the ALICE threshold, combining households in poverty with ALICE households (~29%).
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (2024); New Hampshire ranks among the highest states for median household income, underscoring the cost-of-living gap ALICE families face.
- New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority (2025); the median home costs roughly 5.5 times the median household income, and more than half of renters are cost-burdened.
- Social Security Administration; the federal SSI asset limit has remained $2,000 for an individual since 1989.
- Business & Industry Association of New Hampshire / Saint Anselm survey; roughly three in four New Hampshire business leaders cite the worker shortage as a barrier to growth.
- NH School Funding Fairness Project; New Hampshire pays the lowest state share of public education in the country, leaving local property taxpayers to cover the large majority of special-education costs.
- NOTE: the “two to three times the cost of raising a typical child” figure reflects national disability-cost research and is attributed as such in the text, pending New Hampshire–specific confirmation.