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Though Martin Luther King Jr. may be most known for his work on desegregation and voting rights, a lot of his life was focused on class issues and centered around how he could do something about poverty, the keynote speaker at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration said Monday evening at Riverland Community College. 

Larry McDonough, a senior attorney with the Housing Justice Center, who also teaches a poverty law class at the University of Minnesota, said King studied people with lower incomes and education and how their lives would be compared to those in opposite circumstances. 

McDonough said in 1966, King lived in a bad rat-infested apartment to publicize the inequalities in people who were poor and in 1968 planned what was called the Poor People’s Campaign, to try to gain economic justice for poor people in the country. He said that campaign is not talked about as much because King was assassinated and it was carried out after his death. 

Many of the issues King advocated for are still concerns in today’s world.

McDonough, who also lobbies with city councils and at the Legislature for ordinances and legislation that could be more helpful for tenants, pointed out several statistics regarding rural versus urban Minnesota and others regarding rental households. 

He said according to the Rural Health Information Hub, the average per capita income for rural Minnesota is $52,000 — $10,000 less than the average per capita income for Minnesotans as a whole. He also noted that the poverty rate is 1% higher in rural areas than in urban areas. 

McDonough said he was taken back by some specifics about Albert Lea’s rental housing market.

He said there is zero inventory of rental properties with lower rent, meaning if you had to move out of a property because its ceiling caved in, you would be in a big competition for a new place to live. 

He said 80% of the rental housing units in the city are 40 years or older and 44% of all rental households in Albert Lea pay more than 30% of their income on rent. 

“That’s telling us we have a real housing affordability problem,” he said, though this is not unique to Albert Lea. 

He referenced a weekly household survey conducted by the Census Bureau during the pandemic, and in the survey that covered the end of December 2021 and January 2022, 12% of renters in the state were not caught up on their rent and 19% had no confidence or only slight confidence in their ability to pay their next month’s rent. 

He encouraged people in attendance to do their part to make a difference on these issues by volunteering at legal aid offices, volunteering at food shelves and lobbying for tenant protection at the local, state and federal levels, voting and even consider running for office.

In addition to McDonough’s remarks, Jeremy Corey-Gruenes presented $500 scholarships to students Samantha Brumbaugh and Areli De Rosas Lazaro, who he said have demonstrated a commitment to peace and justice in their lives. 

Scholarships have been given out every year since 2004.

A choir of seventh graders from Southwest Middle School performed two songs under the direction of music teacher Mary Bissen, including “Blowin in the Wind” by Bob Dylan and “We Sing for Justice.” 

McDonough also shared musical numbers with those in attendance. 

It was the 34th year for the event.