BEMIDJI — The costs and availability of health care, child care, housing and groceries can weigh heavily on the minds of Northern Minnesota families.
In Bemidji, a group of policymakers, families and child care providers are exploring how to take families who are barely getting by to become ones who can thrive in their community. A Wednesday, Dec. 3, forum at Beltrami Electric’s community room allowed people the opportunity to learn more and share their own experiences.
“It is obvious that we have an affordability crisis in Beltrami County. There is a way out,” said Lydia Pietruszewski, director of Pine Pals. The intergenerational child care center got its start amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when she said the challenges within the child care industry became more pronounced.
That was the impetus for Pietruszewski to get involved with Kids Count on Us, an advocacy group that lobbies for a comprehensive fix to child care.
“We have a lot of families and children in Beltrami County and in Bemidji that live at or below the poverty line," she said. “We also have a significant number of people that live above or at the poverty line but still cannot afford their lives.”
The people above the poverty line are described as “ALICE,” which means assets-limited, income-constrained, employed. Child care workers often fall into this threshold, with a $13 average wage.
The United Way of Bemidji Area hosts a wealth of information about this socioeconomic demographic. Annie Butler-Ricks, the nonprofit’s community development director, presented on the ALICE data in Beltrami County during the forum.
“Beltrami County has 14% poverty. However, almost twice that number are ALICE,” Butler-Ricks said. “That means for every 50 people, there's another 100 people that are surviving day-to-day, but not thriving. They're not able to save for emergencies.”
Bemidji Mayor Jorge Prince, State Rep. Bidal Duran, House 2A candidate Reed Olson, Bemidji City Councilmember Gwenia Fiskevold Gould and Beltrami County Commissioner Joe Gould joined in some of the forum discussions.
Bemidji parent Crystal Noble talked about the challenges of even finding child care when she was expecting her daughter Ruby, now 2 years old.
“I used to come home from work sobbing when we were trying to find child care. I cried through the 10 months I was home with her, searching for care, wondering how we were going to keep making it work," Noble said. "And once I knew we would find care, how we were going to pay for it.”
One of the legislative fixes discussed was Free Child Care for All, which would cap the out-of-pocket expenses for child care at 7% of a family’s income, replacing both the Early Childhood Education grants and the child care assistance program.
Many families who don’t qualify for these programs can pay upwards of 20% of their income in child care costs.
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