North Dakota, Land of Opportunity?

North Dakota has the nation's lowest unemployment rate, just four percent. The state's economy actually grew in 2008. It has plenty of oil fields, major farms and customer service call centers that are hiring. There's even a swanky government web site advertising the thousands of available jobs. Sound like paradise for the millions of people out of work in other states? Not so fast. There's one minor problem: thousands of the job-seekers streaming into North Dakota can't find housing, and many of them aren't paid enough to afford it anyway. So, incredibly, although there's no unemployment problem in North Dakota, there is a poverty and homelessness crisis.

It seems unbelievable that people would pick up and move to North Dakota without an official job offer or a lead on a place to live, but desperation can drive people to make poor decisions. The oil fields near Williston, in the northwestern part of the state, have been a major draw for people hoping to strike it rich -- or at least secure a steady, high-paying job. And presumably, people who hear about the 8,500 open jobs in North Dakota just assume the state also offers at least 8,500 homes. Last August, The Washington Post followed a woman moving from Ohio to North Dakota for a job. The front-page article depicted Janet Morgan passing up $350-monthly rental apartments in favor of buying a $7,500 expanded mobile home, without a mention of the growing homelessness problem.

But in fact, housing is scarce throughout the state, especially in small towns. In Williston, two city-owned trailer parks are completely full, but developers aren't yet willing to gamble on building new houses or apartment complexes. Many of those new jobs are entry-level gigs with low pay, meaning that a large percentage of the people who move remain too poor to afford anything, even at North Dakota prices. People who come for the oil jobs often end up living in their cars, a scary proposition during a North Dakota winter. Since homelessness has been practically nonexistent before the past few years, few shelters and soup kitchens exist.

There's a lesson here for job-seekers: do your research before moving to North Dakota. But the state government deserves much of the blame for creating the problem: that glitzy web site teeming with job opportunities says nothing about how difficult it is to find housing. The government is understandably excited about being seen as a land of opportunity, but it owes it to its future residents to be honest about what the North Dakotan life is really like.

Photo credit: bsabarnowl