Few People, Plenty of Jobs, But not Enough Housing
April 22, 2010
The New York Times earlier this week profiled a state that has a unique problem that other states wish they had: plenty of jobs, but not enough homes to house the workers.
The article–A State With Plenty of Jobs but Few Places to Live–describes how the third smallest state by population (about 647,000), North Dakota has the lowest unemployment rate in the country, at 4 percent, driven primarily by an oil boom that has drawn in thousands of workers from other states. People arriving in the state looking for work have no trouble finding it; however, finding a place to sleep is another matter. While there are some houses for sale in the state, few of the newcomers can afford them outright or even qualify for a mortgage. Housing is so scarce that apartment complexes and mobile home parks have long waiting lists, and even hotel and motel rooms are booked for months in advance.
While the rest of the country was sinking into recession, North Dakota never did. Other states nursed budget deficits, but North Dakota, even now, has a surplus. The state has a wealth of other jobs. A rise in oil production here, especially, served as an antidote to any whiff of what the rest of the nation was witnessing.
Beneath an enormous expanse of land here, workers have pumped an ever-growing amount of crude oil from a formation called the Bakken, thanks in part to new horizontal drilling technology. Government estimates put the potential recoverable oil from the Bakken, which stretches into Montana, at 4.3 billion barrels.
Now, 109 oil rigs - with scores of workers for each - are drilling in North Dakota, and some officials say that figure could reach 150 this year.
The same forces that have resulted in more homelessness elsewhere - unemployment, foreclosure, economic misery - have pushed laid off workers from California, Florida, Minnesota, Michigan and Wyoming to abundant jobs here, especially in the booming oil fields.
But in this city [Williston] rising from the long empty stretches of North Dakota, hundreds are sleeping in their cars or living in motel rooms, pup tents and tiny campers meant for weekend getaways in warmer climes. They are staying on cots in offices and in sleeping bags in the concrete basements of people they barely know.
North Dakota has the lowest unemployment rate in the country, 4 percent, but advocates for the homeless say the number of people they see with nowhere to live - a relatively rare occurrence here until now - grew to 987 in 2009 from 832 in 2008, an increase of about 19 percent.
And the problem is certain to worsen this summer as oil companies call for more rigs and thousands more workers.
Despite the lack of housing and struggles this entails, few of the newcomers told the Times that they plan to return to their home states. As one recent arrival put it, "If I was home right now, I would be way worse. There is potential here."
