Rent, mortgage, taxes, and insurance are all rising much, much faster than our paychecks – and it's the main driving force in the cost of living crisis.

But no geographic area is immune to it – despite what right-wing media would like you to believe. Drive through some small towns off the nearest freeway and you can clearly see that homelessness and housing insecurity is not simply an "urban" issue.

Republican politicians and podcast personalities love to whip up a frenzy about "tent cities," but they rarely fight for localized solutions that would give rural communities and their struggles the help and attention they deserve.

Read on, and let us know what you think.

Heidi

Forwarded Message

Like any other major challenge, homelessness touches every part of our country – and rural communities are no different. 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.

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