Right wing media would like you to believe that homelessness and housing insecurity is only an "urban" issue, but drive around some towns off the nearest freeway, and you'll see clearly, it's not.

Like any other major challenge, it touches every part of our country – and rural communities are not immune. It simply plays out differently than in big cities.

Rural homelessness increased sharply over the last few years, although it's almost certainly still undercounted.

Rural folks have fewer housing options. Low population density often means bigger single family homes on bigger plots of land – with all the costs that come along with that. Apartments, social housing, transitional housing, or even just denser housing aren't as common.

And, of course there are other issues compounding the affordable housing problem: shortage of good-paying jobs and union apprenticeships, high costs of health care, and more, that turn small problems into big ones.

When things start to snowball and get out of hand, rural areas have fewer dedicated homeless interventions. Overburdened social services agencies struggle to keep up with the problem and to get the funding and resources they need to address it.

Meanwhile, politicians in Washington argue, point fingers, and make speeches about tents on city sidewalks, but they rarely give rural communities and their struggles the attention they deserve.

We'll keep up the fight for localized solutions: from funding to build affordable housing units that meet the needs of residents to workforce development to get folks into homes and prevent them from losing them in the first place. With resources and support, rural families can get back on their feet and into stable housing and living wage jobs.

Heidi

Heidi Heitkamp, Former U.S. Senator for North Dakota
Founder, One Country Project