Forum Editorial: One bite at a time
EDITORIAL MUG: Editorial art Vertical
The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time, and our community leaders are doing their best in choosing where to cut next.
We encourage the effort, in its very early stages, to address Maryville’s persistent housing crisis, and hope that solving it can become a top priority for stakeholders.
As we learned during the last Census, rural communities are getting smaller at a rapid pace. Fewer people lived in Nodaway County in 2020 than during any Census in history.
Maryville, like nearly every small town our size, is fighting a battle of attrition on multiple fronts, trying to compete with both each other and more urban areas where families have access to broadband internet, more affordable housing, mental health care, transportation, schools with enough teachers and more child care options, just to name a few.
There’s no beating around the bush: the reality is that for communities like ours, the path forward is littered with hurdles that are becoming increasingly difficult to clear and won’t get better without innovative, creative solutions.
What makes our community stick out from the crowd is that we actually are attempting to solve these problems with innovative, creative solutions.
The actual details of the plan presented during last week’s meeting with area employers and government officials are less important right now than the clear signal that housing must be the next bite of the elephant.
A 2018 housing study commissioned by the city of Maryville estimated that a whopping 63 percent of people who work in Maryville live elsewhere. The study found what is immediately obvious to anyone attempting to move to the area or considering moving here for a job: there is very little housing available that matches the income levels of the positions that are open. That includes not only those looking to buy a house, but also for those just who want to rent — the study reinforced that the city’s rental market is increasingly geared toward packing as many college students into one house as can fit, and getting them to pay a premium for it.
Consequently, even our employers who have plenty of good career opportunities for young families are struggling to fill them because Maryville is simply not a place where they can afford to purchase their first home and put down roots. The No. 1 hurdle employers cited during last week’s meeting was being able to make the down payment — followed closely by being able to make the monthly mortgage payments.
It’s not a new problem, and the number of employers in the room last week is a testament both to the dire need and their willingness to try creative solutions.
Keeping our community vibrant and growing will continue to be an uphill battle. But the only way to move on to the next hill is the continued willingness by all stakeholders to share ownership of the problem and work together to find a way forward.
While the efforts to solve our housing crisis are in such early stages that it’s probably best still called “brainstorming,” we’re confident it’s the right bite to take next.
