Winnemucca, Nevada, lies in the Great Basin an hour south of the Oregon border. High-desert peaks rise sharply on all sides and a sea of sagebrush stretches to the horizon.
Leslie Reed is exactly the kind of person you鈥檇 expect to meet out here. She鈥檚 self-sufficient, stubborn and doesn鈥檛 mind getting her hands dirty. Reed lives in an RV park near the golf course with five rescue dogs, one cat and two Russian tortoises. But she鈥檇 rather be out in the country.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 live in neighborhoods, OK? I have the animals. I like my privacy,鈥� she said. 鈥淢y illness has forced me to move to town.鈥�
Reed is 63 years old and suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Back in July, she says, her health took a turn for the worse.
鈥淚 was having bad heart things and sitting on the floor at work, vomiting, because I was overworking,鈥� she said.
Reed lost her job at a local laundromat, which put her in a real jam. In Winnemucca 鈥� where the population is just 8,431 鈥� rents are climbing fast.
in Mountain West cities and resort towns are well-documented. But low-income residents in rural areas are finding it harder to stay housed, too, as waves of gentrification move inland from the coast. Nevada ranks in terms of available units per 100 extremely low-income households, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Alaine Nye directs the Winnemucca nonprofit Frontier Community Action Agency. She says there aren鈥檛 many options for people in Reed鈥檚 position.
鈥淎ffordable housing is few and far between,鈥� she said.
Nye and her staff were able to get Reed on the waitlist for a federal rent subsidy and they鈥檙e helping her navigate the process of getting disability benefits. While Reed waits, her landlord is letting her keep the spot where she parks her fifth wheel. But many of her neighbors haven鈥檛 been so lucky.
Nye says the agency鈥檚 caseload began to grow after COVID hit, as unemployment rates and real estate values soared nationwide. Today, some of its clients are staying in temporary lodging, because there aren鈥檛 any emergency shelters in the area.
鈥淭here鈥檚 71 living in motels right now,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the highest number that we鈥檝e ever had.鈥�
The Nevada Rural Housing Authority is also trying to get a handle on the crisis. It recently bought two apartment complexes in Winnemucca intended for seniors and very low-income households 鈥� for example, a a year.
One of those buildings is the Mountain View apartment complex. During a site visit a few months ago, half the units still had the original faded blue siding. Across the parking lot, the rest had been cut open to show reflective sheets of new insulation.
Beth Dunning works for the housing authority and gave a guided tour of the units as they were being remodeled.
鈥淲e鈥檝e removed all of the flooring, all of the cabinets, all of the appliances,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e replacing any damaged doors. We鈥檙e replacing all of the plumbing fixtures, faucets, toilets, sinks. All of that gets replaced.鈥�
Housing authority staff estimate the apartments should open up next winter. But it could have been a lot sooner if they didn鈥檛 have to bring supplies and contractors in from Reno and Las Vegas.
On top of that, they鈥檙e dealing with .
鈥淢echanical equipment has taken us longer to obtain than we would like,鈥� Dunning said. 鈥淔urnaces, fan coil units, condenser units, windows. We鈥檙e at, like, a 16-week procurement period.鈥�
Meanwhile, the housing shortage isn鈥檛 just bad for people like Leslie Reed. Local officials say it鈥檚 a big problem for employers, too. Jan Morrison runs economic development for Humboldt County, which includes Winnemucca.
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 have employees if they don鈥檛 have a place to go home to at night,鈥� she said.
County Assessor Andy Heiser says the crunch has his office struggling to fill open positions. Job seekers who can鈥檛 find a place to live are deciding to look somewhere else.
鈥淎fter looking at our current housing market, they decided to pull their application,鈥� he said.
Morrison says the local economy is on track to over the next five years 鈥� and since she published her most recent report in February, projections have continued to grow. But there aren鈥檛 enough locals to fill them, so they鈥檒l need to bring in more workers.
She says nearby gold and silver mines are helping drive up prices, too, because they pay much more than most other industries. On average, Nevada miners make each year.
鈥淭hey can afford a higher price,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f we don鈥檛 have the product for them to move into, they鈥檙e going to move into what they can get.鈥�
And what they can get is often the housing that lower-income residents used to depend on.
According to Ryanne Pilgeram, the influx of well-paid workers 鈥� like Humboldt County鈥檚 miners or remote employees who left big cities during the pandemic 鈥� is pushing working-class residents out.
鈥淩ural communities are every bit as inundated with global economic forces and laws as the Bay Area,鈥� she said.
Pilgeram is an associate professor at the University of Idaho who studies rural gentrification and literally on the subject. Pushed Out: Contested Development and Rural Gentrification in the U.S. West, published last year, takes a close look at how high-end development is changing the small community of Dover, Idaho.
Pilgeram says these economic changes are a wake-up call for Idaho, Nevada and other Western states.
鈥淲e can look at what鈥檚 happened in California and think, 鈥楧o we want this to be our fate?鈥� 鈥�
Pilgeram says it will take political will to confront the crisis. But just like affordable housing, she says, that can be hard to develop.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West in Montana, 萝莉少女 in Colorado, KUNM in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the .
Copyright 2022 KUNR Public Radio. To see more, visit . 9(MDAxNDQ2NDAxMDEyNzU2NzM2ODA3ZGI1ZA001))
