BELLINGHAM, Wash. — A new report from the Census Bureau indicated that the poverty rate in Bellingham rose 54% in 2023 from the previous year.
Overall, 22% of Bellingham residents live in poverty. That is up from 14% in 2022.
The median income is down $12,000 to $54,867. That's far below the state's median of $94,605.
"There's a lot of conversations my teams are having that are pretty gut-wrenching," said Yarrow Greer who manages community services for Bellingham's Opportunity Council.
She believes the main reasons for rising poverty are food and housing costs.
"Spending money on food and rent takes most of their money," Greer said. "Then they have to worry about things like gas and diapers."
Greer said she sees 6-8 new people looking for housing daily.
The number of calls for assistance has tripled to about 300 per week since before the pandemic.
The biggest influx of people in need are seniors and disabled people on fixed incomes.
"For the first time I've been seeing a lot of people on a fixed income come in who say their rent is continuing to increase," Greer said. "There was one gentleman I worked with who said his rent was going up $500. There was just no way that was going to happen."
The city needs to build 860 new housing units every year to keep up with growth and it isn't coming close.
The rental vacancy rate is just 3% -- pushing up prices and squeezing people out of the market.
After 16 years at the Opportunity Council, Greer said opportunities are becoming much more difficult to find.
"It's extremely frustrating because I've worked here for a long time," Greer said.
Bellingham's poverty rate is more than double the state rate of 10.3% and nearly double the national rate of 12.6%.