Category: Rural Headlines

EXCERPT: “Over 500 hospitals have closed their labor and delivery departments since 2010, according to a large new study, leaving most rural hospitals and more than a third of urban hospitals without obstetric care. Those closures, the study found, were slightly offset by the opening of new units in about 130 hospitals. Even so, the share ...

EXCERPT: “As temperatures plummet, some people who are unsheltered and homeless have had to find a way inside to stay safe. It’s a difficult time of year for the roughly 10,000 people in the state who have unstable or no shelter. Often people without stable housing live unnoticed and without the safety and care they need. ...

EXCERPT: “Operating costs are creating challenges for apartment owners and developers in Greater Minnesota, where housing needs are especially acute, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Insurance costs, interest rates and staffing shortages were identified as three roadblocks for rental housing owners and operators in the region, according to the report, which was ...

EXCERPT: “Insurance, interest rates, and staffing are common challenges for rental housing owners and operators in Greater Minnesota, a region made up of 80 of the state’s 87 counties and home to 45 percent of its population.1 That’s according to conversations with dozens of multifamily property owners there this summer. They told us that while ...

EXCERPT: “Immigration from around the world has transformed Worthington, bringing new businesses to emptying downtown storefronts as well as new worship and recreational spaces to this town of 14,000 residents in the southwestern Minnesota farmland. On the same downtown block where children once admired Coast King bikes while their parents bought furniture and do-it-yourself tools, Asian and ...

EXCERPT: “For Montevideo Public School Superintendent Wade McKittrick, creating a medical academy in the Montevideo High School filled a need on two fronts for the rural Minnesota community – the students’ and the community’s. Montevideo Medical Academy provides high-school students with medical training to give them a leg up when it comes to getting jobs. For ...

EXCERPT: “Dozens of small- and mid-sized communities in Minnesota are about to get a big boost from the state’s housing board of directors. Minnesota Housing announced Friday that $38.7 million will soon go toward building new rental properties across Greater Minnesota. The agency said the nearly $40 million investment will create 832 market-rate rental units ...

EXCERPT: “At the September 23 meeting of the Rushford City Countil, Elizabeth Wefel, attorney and lobbyist with Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities (CGMC), provided the council with a summary of the coalition’s work in the last legislative session. Rushford is a longtime member of the coalition, made up of more than 100 cities across the ...

EXCERPT: “Northern Access, a Treatment and Government Organizations coalition, held their bi-monthly meeting at the Beltrami County Administration Building in Bemidji. They met with several other nonprofit organizations to discuss homeless and addiction recovery access throughout northern Minnesota. Many representatives from different organizations met at their bi-monthly meeting in Bemidji to address rural disparities and issues ...