By Chloe Kucera, Faribault Daily News June 23, 2025 Lack of affordable housing and homelessness…
Experts and organizations discuss trends at Housing and Homelessness in Rice County panel
By CHLOE KUCERA, Northfield News
March 9, 2025
Housing — or lack thereof — is not a unique problem to the area, it is an epidemic that has impacted the nation. Locally, however, experts are looking to find a way to tackle the issue head-on.
On Monday, Rice County hosted a Housing and Homelessness in Rice County panel at the Weitz Center for Creativity at Carleton College. Housing experts for the county and related organizations presented information on the trends in housing and homelessness observed in the county. They also shared what resources are offered for those impacted and what is being done to mitigate the issue. Those present organizations included Three Rivers Community Action, Community Action Center and Northfield Union of Youth.
The county and various organizations shared data that emphasized the impact and pressing issue of the high cost of housing.
Joy Watson, Rice County Housing Director, highlighted the number of Minnesotans who experience a cost burden when housing costs more than 30% of a household’s income. In the latest data by Minnesota Housing Partnership from 2022, 19% of homeowners and 45% of renters in Rice County are cost-burdened and at risk of being pushed to choose between a home and basic needs like food, clothing, and medicine. 23% of renters are severely cost-burdened, which means they spend more than 50% of their income on housing. The pressures of cost burdens can lead to evictions and homelessness, which are both on the rise in the state. In 2022, there were around 19,600 homeless people recorded in Minnesota. Homelessness is experienced disproportionally, with 66% of the homeless population being Black, Indigenous, or people of color.
Watson shared that home costs have almost doubled since 1985. According to a study by the Joint Center of Housing Studies of Harvard University, the price-to-income ratio in 1985 was 2.5 times income, and in 2022, it was 4.3 times income.
“Fifty years ago, you could confidently know that it would be less money to buy a home than it would be for you to rent. Most people have it in their mind that rent is like $500, which is a small piece of your income, so you can save up and buy the house. That is not the path available to homeowners anymore,” Watson said.
Watson then presented information on the average salaries of local jobs with data provided by Workforce Development. Many of the wages were insufficient to cover renting even a one-bedroom apartment. The county pulled average rental costs in Northfield to compare with salaries.
“An average one-bedroom in Northfield is $1,600,” Watson said. “To be affordable, you must make three times the cost. So for a one-bedroom apartment, you would need to be making $4,800 a month, or $57,000 a year, which comes out to a little over $27 an hour, to be able to afford a one-bedroom apartment. Many jobs do not make that affordable. If you get to a two-bedroom, that’s $1,800, and in order to afford that, you need to be making $64,000 a year, or $31 an hour. There are very few jobs in the county that can afford even to rent a two-bedroom apartment.”
Housing Development Director Laura Helle from Three Rivers Community Action shared related data about the five most in-demand jobs in the county: home health aid, nurse, truck driver, fast food counter worker, and stocker or order filler.
“Rice County is actually a leader in the state for adding jobs,” Helle said. “We’ve been adding jobs and are projected to continue adding jobs, but some of the most in-demand jobs are not at the high wage level.”
Four of the five most in-demand job workers could afford to rent a one-bedroom apartment, but only two could afford a two-bedroom apartment.
“In home ownership, the picture gets even worse,” Helle said. We know home ownership is so important for building wealth, but no one among the five most in-demand jobs can afford a brand new house in Rice County; only the nurse would qualify for your 2024 median sale price.”
Three Rivers Action Center assists in affordable housing and is seeing an increase in back rent debts for the households it helps.
We’re also seeing families with large back rent debts,” Helle said. “Back rent really exploded with the COVID-19 Pandemic, so instead of owing a couple months’ rent to your previous landlord, they come in with six months or more the debt following you around, which can be a real barrier for moving into new housing. We also see the need for the three-plus-bedroom units for larger families and multi-generational families.”
Another trend the organization is seeing is that before the COVID-19 pandemic, they were providing more one-time assistance to households for emergencies, and now, post-COVID, they are seeing more households requiring ongoing support and are also noticing lingering mental health and social isolation impacts from the pandemic.
Executive Director of the Community Action Center (CAC) Scott Wopata shared that the need for their services, including food access, housing, and resources, has grown tremendously. 2018 the CAC served 12% of Northfield’s population; in 2024, that number had grown to almost 30%. A CAC in Faribault opened in 2021; by 2024, 36% of the population was using it.
Wopata then shared some data regarding homelessness in the county. In 2021, there were 222 individuals identified as experiencing homelessness. 90% of those were families with children, 4% were youth with children, and 6% were unaccompanied youth.
Executive Director of Northfield Union of Youth Kelli Podracky provided information from the Wilder Foundation regarding homeless youth in the state.
“On a single night in 2023, 1,315 unaccompanied youth, ages 24 and younger, experienced homelessness in Minnesota,” Podracky said. “Together, children and youth, ages 24 and younger, account for four out of every 10 people experiencing homelessness. There is a demographic disparity. Youth of color are disproportionately affected. 73% of homeless youth identifying as black, Indigenous, or people of color, despite comprising only 26% of Minnesota’s youth population, are experiencing homelessness.”
Through the panel, the audience received information regarding housing and homelessness in Rice County. The panelists highlighted the lack of affordable housing and how that challenge can lead people to homelessness. However, as Wopata brought up, there are many complexities involved in the discussion of homelessness. He also recognized that the topic of homelessness cannot all be covered in a single panel.
“I just want to make sure we hold the complexity while we also selfishly seek simplicity and clarity in the conversation,” he said.
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