Utility bills top list of concerns in TRI-CAP’s 2026 needs assessment
Utility bills now top the concerns of low-income residents in Dubois, Pike and Warrick counties, according to TRI-CAP’s newly released 2026 Community Needs Assessment — the first time in the survey’s history that utility affordability has ranked as the region’s top need.
“Our electric bill with Centerpoint is so hard to pay. It’s basically two paychecks,” one resident told surveyors.
The assessment, published every three years as a federal requirement for Community Action Agencies, combines survey responses from TRI-CAP clients and community partners with data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report identifies emerging needs, highlights community strengths, and helps ensure that TRI-CAP’s services continue to respond to the region’s changing needs.
“The findings provide valuable insight into the needs of our communities and will help guide TRI-CAP’s strategic planning, program development, and partnerships as we continue serving Southwestern Indiana,” said Joyce Fleck, TRI-CAP executive director. The assessment was developed by the Indiana Community Action Poverty Institute, a program of the Indiana Community Action Association.
The findings draw on surveys of 74 low-income residents and 17 community partners conducted in January and February, along with census and labor statistics.
The 2026 rankings mark a sharp turn from the agency’s 2023 assessment. Three years ago, residents ranked legal services assistance first, followed by housing, good jobs, nutrition workshops and budgeting classes. This year, the top five were utility affordability, quality and affordable housing, food assistance, transportation support and affordable child care — a list that reflects the raw costs of getting by.
In past assessments, utilities were counted under housing. This year, the report noted that the category was broken out for the first time, based on community input, reflecting affordable utilities as an increasingly distinct need for households.
That need is reinforced by state data. The report cites a 17.5% surge in the average electricity cost paid by Hoosiers in the past year, with rate increases hitting lowest-income households hardest. Low-income families are also more likely to live in homes with poor insulation, water leaks or other problems that drive bills higher.
Assistance programs have not kept pace. According to the report, 122,229 Indiana households receive help from the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, but more than 611,000 additional eligible households do not because of insufficient program funding — meaning only about one in five eligible families below the income threshold receives assistance.
Dubois County numbers
Dubois County’s poverty rate of 11.0% is the highest of TRI-CAP’s three counties, ahead of Pike at 10.7% and Warrick at 7.0%, though the service area as a whole sits below the statewide rate of 12.3%. Children fare worst: 14.3% of children under 5 in the service area live in poverty.
Housing held its No. 2 ranking from 2023. The 2026 Fair Market Rent in Dubois County is $729 for a one-bedroom apartment and $956 for a two-bedroom, and 31% of county renters pay 30% or more of their household income toward housing — the federal threshold for being considered cost-burdened. Statewide, the report says Indiana has only 34 affordable and accessible homes for every 100 extremely low-income households.
“The rent prices have skyrocketed therefore those of us on SSDI cannot afford any rent in the area,” one respondent wrote.
Food insecurity affects an estimated 5,710 Dubois County residents, and 61% of them earn too much to qualify for SNAP benefits, according to Feeding America data cited in the report.
The report’s starkest local numbers concern child care. Between January 2025 and April 2026, Dubois County lost a net of six child care programs and 202 capacity slots — the largest decline among the three counties, which lost 295 slots combined.
“The concern with waitlists and delayed enrollment is significant: childcare brings demonstrable benefits to children, families, and employers within the community. When childcare is unattainable for families, it is often women who are expected to step back from the labor force, leaving their roles in the economy vacant,’” the report states.
The report estimates the average annual cost of care for infants and toddlers in Indiana at $15,776, or about $1,315 per month — roughly 21% of the state’s median household income.
“Even though we have the vouchers, we only have one place that accepts them and there’s a waiting list years long to get into it,” one resident said.
TRI-CAP currently provides full-day Head Start preschool instruction for 134 children and, in response to the lost capacity, said it could potentially expand programming.
This reflects TRI-CAP’s broader role in addressing the needs of the counties it serves.
The Dubois-Pike-Warrick Economic Opportunity Committee Inc., doing business as TRI-CAP, released the report this month; it is available on the agency’s website at tri-cap.net/news.
