Living on the street in Bozeman Montana.

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montanabill

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My daughter is looking at a 4 bed/2 bath home in central California, on 3½ acres, for $550k. This house would be $2m, just for the land. They pay $3k a month rent by us, and is not sustainable.

I just can't see homeless in Montana living in a car, with the frigid temperatures up there.
 
Why would anyone that can't afford it ever move to Bozeman? That's just plain stupid. They should turn their arse around and go somewhere else. We get fools moving up here too that can't afford to live here. Don't these people have enough brains to at least check out the housing costs before moving to an area? I don't have much sympathy for people like that.
 
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Why would anyone that can't afford it ever move to Bozeman? That's just plain stupid. They should turn their arse around and go somewhere else. We get fools moving up here too that can't afford to live here. Don't these people have enough brains to at least check out the housing costs before moving to an area? I don't have much sympathy for people like that.
hat does seem pretty dang stupid!!
 
My daughter is looking at a 4 bed/2 bath home in central California, on 3½ acres, for $550k. This house would be $2m, just for the land. They pay $3k a month rent by us, and is not sustainable.

I just can't see homeless in Montana living in a car, with the frigid temperatures up there.
When I worked in North Dakota there were countless people living in their cars and campers looking for a job in the oil fields. I hired many people that were camped out in the Walmart parking lot or farmers fields etc. Even during winter. I set up man camps for our employees and provided room and board + guaranteed 84 hour work weeks and a 3×3 rotational schedule. It's surprising how many people turned these jobs down.
 
I am sad that as a nation we have chosen to allow the supreme court to criminalize being poor or unhoused. Especially in places where housing is unavaliable or beyond reach of residents. Bozeman is different from inner city ghetto homeless. While there are those with addiction issues, many are simply the working poor who are priced out of housing. Regardless, they are human beings.

When I was 16 our condo burned down (12 units). Thankfully as the fire spread I got my guns and our camping and fishing gear out, and jumped off the second story. We camped in the forest for 6 months while getting back on our feet. There was no red cross, or welfare, and my mom managed the complex, so we lost our job too. But we weren't criminals.

Later, when I got out of the army I lived in my VW pop-top for 6 months on the beach in Florida and the Keys, because I could. Both were some of the best times of my life.

You know what's really sad, Grants Pass and Rogue River, OR was where survivalist Mel Tappan espoused moving to for those seeking freedom and the ability to live a sustaining lifestyle. Many of those who followed him there were not very well off either. How far we have fallen. :(
 
I wonder if they are only there in the summer and go south in the winter?
In my example above, they were there year round. Many of these guys were losers and had no skills whatsoever. They were even too useless and lazy to fill a laborer position (which paid $35 an hour with 44 hours a week overtime ). Usually, if someone has nothing and looks worthless, he probably is.
 
This same thing is occuring all over the west. Flagstaff has hundreds living in the forest, at least in the summer. Sedona complains they can't get workers, and many who do come are living in their cars. But the city just blocked them from sleeping in a safe parking area where a number had settled. So again, in a town of $2 million dollar homes, the poor aren't welcome. Most ski towns in Colorado (really everywhere) have terrible housing shortages. Like Crested Butte. It's insanely expensive and workers can't afford housing. Some places provide employee housing.

People have to live somewhere. If we aren't going to subsidise housing, then we shouldn't make not being able to afford it a crime.
 
This same thing is occuring all over the west. Flagstaff has hundreds living in the forest, at least in the summer. Sedona complains they can't get workers, and many who do come are living in their cars. But the city just blocked them from sleeping in a safe parking area where a number had settled. So again, in a town of $2 million dollar homes, the poor aren't welcome. Most ski towns in Colorado (really everywhere) have terrible housing shortages. Like Crested Butte. It's insanely expensive and workers can't afford housing. Some places provide employee housing.

People have to live somewhere. If we aren't going to subsidise housing, then we shouldn't make not being able to afford it a crime.
Why should the tax payer be expected to pay housing costs for people who have no business moving to expensive area where they can't possibly ever afford? There are thousands of areas around the country that have much cheaper housing cost than Bozeman, ski towns or other high cost areas.
 
Why should the tax payer be expected to pay housing costs for people who have no business moving to expensive area where they can't possibly ever afford? There are thousands of areas around the country that have much cheaper housing cost than Bozeman, ski towns or other high cost areas.

Thousands of areas? Think how bad it has to be elsewhere for someone to choose a car in a Bozeman winter... People aren't making that choice from stupidity, even stupid people know they can freeze. Has to be other reasons.
 
Isn't it odd how it is too expensive for the paid help to live in an area they are supposed to serve? And everyone wonders why there is a shortage of workers @UserNameTaken Come work here, they said, plenty of jobs, room with your co-workers...used to be that college students (or just young people) would go to national parks for the summer work. Now the jobs have been slashed because now to get in to national parks, you have to have a reservation so there aren't too many people and cars clogging the roads and trails.
One of my relatives lives in Billings, MT and the same is true of the housing costs there.
In my area, we aren't seeing as many homeless. I mentioned this to my son and asked about his area, next county over. He said a lot of the homeless died during covid. There is never enough room at the shelters in FW.
 

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