By Lacey Mills
Who Knew Reno County?
When we talk about struggle in Reno County, we often picture something obvious, a visible crisis, a breaking point, a moment when help is clearly needed. But many of the hardest challenges in our community don’t announce themselves at all.
They happen quietly.
They happen in cars parked overnight behind stores.
They happen in spare bedrooms and on couches, where families are temporarily staying with relatives or friends because stable housing is out of reach.
They happen in homes where both parents work, yet the math still doesn’t add up at the end of the month.
This is what hidden struggle looks like.
Many of these households fall into a category often referred to as ALICE, Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. These are individuals and families who are working and contributing, but still cannot afford the basic cost of living. They earn too much to qualify for traditional assistance, yet live one unexpected expense away from crisis.
In Reno County, nearly 29% of households fall into the ALICE category. When you include those living below the poverty line, that number rises to 42 percent of our community. These are not isolated situations. They represent a significant portion of our neighbors.
In Reno County, homelessness is not always visible. Many people experiencing housing instability are employed. They are showing up to work, taking kids to school, and doing their best to keep life looking normal. But without a safe, stable place to live, everything becomes harder: health, employment, education, and hope itself.
The same is true for working families. Parents are doing everything right, working full-time, budgeting carefully, staying engaged with their kids, yet still having to choose between groceries, utilities, childcare, or rent. These families rarely ask for help. From the outside, they look fine.
Childcare is one of the biggest pressure points. Parents are turning down jobs, promotions, or additional hours, not because they don’t want to work, but because safe, affordable childcare simply isn’t available. This challenge does not just affect families. It affects employers, workforce stability, and the long-term economic health of our community. Yet it often goes unseen because the impact happens behind closed doors.
Mental health struggles are perhaps the most invisible of all. Anxiety, depression, and substance use do not always look like crisis. They often look like exhaustion. Missed days. Short tempers. Withdrawal. People manage as best they can until they can’t. When support is not accessible early, small challenges can quietly grow into emergencies.
What all of these situations have in common is invisibility. And when struggles are invisible, they are easier to misunderstand, dismiss, or overlook entirely.
But unseen does not mean uncommon. These challenges affect people we interact with every day, our coworkers, neighbors, the parents on the sidelines at games, and the people serving our meals and staffing our workplaces.
One of the hardest truths about community work is this. By the time a problem becomes obvious, it is usually much harder and more expensive to solve. That is why prevention, coordination, and early support matter so deeply. Investing in families before they reach crisis is not just compassionate. It is practical.
Reno County has always been a community that cares. We show up for our neighbors. We respond in moments of need. The opportunity in front of us now is to widen our understanding of what need really looks like and to recognize that many of our neighbors are carrying more than we realize.
Sometimes, the most meaningful change begins with simply noticing.
When we choose to look beyond what is obvious, we create space for empathy instead of judgment. For solutions instead of assumptions. For a community that does not just respond to crisis, but works together to prevent it.
The struggles we do not see are often the ones that matter most. And when we choose to see them, we take the first step toward becoming the kind of community that catches people before they fall.
Lacey Mills is the Executive Director of United Way of Reno County and can be reached at lmills@uwrenocounty.org.