When you can’t afford to live where you work

The housing crisis in the U.S. continues to get worse, with the highest mortgage rates in a generation currently and rents outpacing inflation by more than 40%. And the problem isn’t just in cities like New York and San Francisco. It’s affecting many other places where tourism is a major industry or high-cost areas that have unique jobs (like being a ski patroller), which don’t pay enough to actually afford the rent there. ‘Fast Company’ writer Pavithra Mohan has been interviewing people in a variety of occupations about the real-life struggles of being priced out of housing in the place where your job requires you to be. For more, check out our ongoing series of firsthand accounts on the topic: I make $60,000 working in the Hamptons. Here’s how the other half lives What it’s like to be a ski patroller in an expensive mountain town