It’s no secret Ocean City faces a critical seasonal workforce housing shortage. The deficiency was debated throughout the spring as resort officials wrestled with an outdated occupancy calculation that had been in place since 1979. Much of that debate focused on the need for safe, affordable housing for the thousands of international students who descend on Ocean City on J-1 visas each spring to fill out the resort’s seasonal workforce.
The J-1 students arrive in the resort after careful vetting by their sponsor organizations. For the most part, they have pre-arranged jobs and pre-arranged housing set up by their sponsors. However, another segment of the seasonal workforce is often left on their own to find living arrangements, and with the J-1 students gobbling up much of the housing stock, it’s becoming increasingly difficult.
Local worker Joe Wagner broached the subject during Monday’s Mayor and Council meeting. Wagner, a long-time visitor to Ocean City, last year moved to the resort to get a fresh start and quickly found multiple employment opportunities. However, Wagner told the Mayor and Council this week finding affordable housing continues to be a challenge.
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After all the locals' apartments on Dorcester and downtown were torn down several years ago, that left a lot of local Americans out in the cold. That was the "affordable" housing, at least for working Americans in Ocean City, even though they had to rely on seasonal work if that's all they could get.
ReplyDeleteA lot of houses were rented out by the bed, by the week, packing 3 or 4 sets of bunkbeds in a room if they could. That's not serving the needs of the families and working adults. They set up for the lucrative, guaranteed chunk of money from the "J-1" workers sponsors, and suddenly Saint Louis and other areas were no longer home to families and longtime residents. A couple or even a small family can't live in those conditions.
Appropriate zoning would have prevented it, but it was too late.
Business owners like the international kids because they give them lower paying jobs and rent them very high occupancy housing. They make more money on their workers 24/7 through active and passive income. And since they control the money and the housing, it's not uncommon for them to be treated like indentured servants. If a student loses their job and housing, they're screwed.
ReplyDeleteBarracks-style housing in and between West OC and Berlin with continuous OC shuttles, resident managers, fencing, and security. Seasonal, off-season and year-round rentals available for OC workers. Each business chips in to keep it as private, business-related housing.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the weekly/monthly rates?
DeleteSounds like an opportunity for some slum lords!
ReplyDeleteDave T: sounds like good old "business people" just can't avoid the temptation of cheap labor. After all, why worry about helping Americans find work when you can use cheap foreign labor and boost that bank account. Just remember, greed is a hole that can never be filled. It gives me great pleasure to know that the dirt found on me daily from hard work washes off. That's more than I can say for you scumbag "business" men and women who prey on others to gain profits. You know who you are.
ReplyDeleteThe article should read affordable housing shortage because there is plenty of housing just not affordable.
ReplyDelete3:22:
ReplyDeleteThat exact scenario was "talked about" back in the eighties - and probably even before that. Nothing was done then, nothing will be done now.
OC will face a major employee crisis if the borders and visas tighten up due to security reasons in the future. They should prepare.
Any "employee crisis" will be brief. Once foreigners are no longer imported by the hundreds, wages will naturally rise to attract employees.
DeleteHow about hiring more local kids instead of contracting these jobs out. You are right about cheap labor.
ReplyDeleteHow about hiring more local kids instead of contracting these jobs out. You are right about cheap labor.
ReplyDeleteMay 19, 2016 at 6:30 PM
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Local kids do work in Ocean City. But guess what else is becoming harder to find and is missing: affordable parking for their cars or any parking.
Affordable housing has always been in short supply. I never found work in Ocean city. I preferred working in Salisbury. My brother did back in the early seventies and lived in a box type affair with three other people (two boys and one girl) in a place they called the Ghetto. Before that in the sixties cousins used to live eight or so to a small apartment so they could work at the beach. In recent years I have seen J-1 living quarters where mattresses lined the floor making it hard to cross the room without walking on the mattresses or somebody on a different shift sleeping.
Right now there are lots of kids from Nepal who go to school in this country looking for work. Since they came from American Universities they don't have employment already arraigned. I have no idea where they are living. Some well spoken kids told me they have been looking for two weeks for work.
Young people they are on the adventure of their lives. Good luck to them all.
I think if the local university would open their dorms and run a regular shuttle they would find it to be profitable and a good deal for the the J-1 students and the university. During the summer these dorms are mainly empty and the university could probably get some of these students to help do repairs to the dorms in exchange for reduced rent, a win win for both!
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