(DODGE COUNTY) Families in Dodge County are feeling the pressure from rising housing costs to growing concerns about youth mental health.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the takeaway from the 2025 Community Health Assessment for Dodge and Jefferson counties, led by the Dodge-Jefferson Healthier Community Partnership.<\/p>\n
The report calls mental health the region\u2019s most urgent need. Rates of youth anxiety and depression remain high, and fewer than 1 in 5 high school students say they get the help they need when they feel sad or hopeless.<\/p>\n
But leaders say mental health is tied to everyday life \u2014 whether people feel connected, can afford a home, and earn enough to cover basic bills.<\/p>\n
Housing stands out as a major stress point.<\/p>\n
Rental vacancy rates in Dodge County sit at just 0.6%. The median home sale price reached $303,650 in 2024 \u2014 up 72% since 2018. In that same time, incomes rose only 38%.<\/p>\n
Nearly a quarter of homeowners and 40% of renters in the two counties spend more than 30% of their income on housing. That leaves less for food, childcare and health care \u2014 and adds stress that can hurt mental health.<\/p>\n
The region is also short an estimated 3,600 housing units.<\/p>\n
Even with a median household income of $77,800, about 31% of households in the region do not earn enough to cover basic living costs.<\/p>\n
For a family with two adults and two young children, the minimum \u201csurvival budget\u201d is nearly $80,000 a year. Two common jobs \u2014 laborers and food service workers \u2014 earn about $67,400 combined.<\/p>\n
Only 53% of high school students say they feel a sense of belonging at school. Parents and teens also raised concerns about heavy screen time replacing face-to-face connection.<\/p>\n
More than 70% of parents surveyed said their own smartphone use sometimes distracts from time with their children.<\/p>\n
The Dodge-Jefferson Healthier Community Partnership \u2014 a collaboration that includes Dodge County Human Services and Health Department, local hospitals, clinics and the Greater Watertown Community Health Foundation \u2014 led the assessment.<\/p>\n
Leaders identified four priorities for the next three years: belonging and connection, basic needs, housing and financial stability.<\/p>\n
Below is the full Community Health Assessment:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(DODGE COUNTY) Families in Dodge County are feeling the pressure from rising housing costs to growing concerns about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[170493,134,527,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-313952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-dodge-county","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}