Keep It Goal 8

Families have ready access to affordable basic goods and services – food, clothing, housing, household goods, and health care.

Common Sense

• Rural areas may lack competitive providers for basic goods and services such as utilities, health care and fuel, which tends to keep prices high.
• Rural families often must travel further for basic goods and services and must pay a premium for them when compared to suburban families.
• The lowest cost rental housing in rural areas is often far away from jobs, schools and services, and sometimes lacks adequate access to infrastructure such as water, sewer, and telecommunications. This is especially true in high-amenity, high-growth rural places.

Fast Facts

• Nearly one in four rural families paid more than they could afford for housing (over 30% of income). (Housing Assistance Council, Taking Stock: Rural People, Poverty, and Housing at the Turn of the 21st Century, 2002)
• One in six rural children live in homes without consistent access to enough food for healthy living. (USDA ERS, Rural Children at a Glace, 2005)
• Nearly 98% of counties deemed “food deserts” (counties in which all residents live more than 10 miles from any supermarket), are located in non-metropolitan areas. (Rural Sociological Society, Rural Realities, Starved for Access: Life in Rural America's Food Deserts, Vol. 1, No. 4, 2007)

Check out related Action Ideas and Alerts below! Or view other Keep It goals here.