Housing Crunch Turns Employers Into Landlords
It’s a new twist on the old concept of company towns. “If you call anybody, they’re all buying houses for their staff,” says Kim Jensen, a Wisconsin restaurateur.
A Dollywood roller coaster is the backdrop for an employee residence hall under construction in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
Photographer: Liam Kennedy/BloombergJeremy Ramirez, a 41-year-old butcher from Los Angeles, had heard that droves of Southern Californians were decamping to the serene peaks of Montana and decided to join the exodus. He still wasn’t prepared for the frustrations of finding a home there for his family of six.
Unable to find anything around tiny Ennis, Montana, a ranching community west of the uber-exclusive Yellowstone Club, Ramirez and family found accommodations in an unlikely place: a house owned by his boss at the Ennis grocery store.