Local Money: The controversy over North Dakota ‘man camps’

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This week, we head to Williston, North Dakota. For several years, workers, often men, were flocking to North Dakota to work in the oil and gas industry during the shale boom.

The state’s unemployment rate is still very low at 2.9 percent, but now that oil prices have fallen, many workers are moving on and leaving behind so-called “man camps” or temporary housing.

In the city of Willston, the city has ordered the crew camps to close, hoping that employees will instead move into vacant apartments and hotels.

Bill Carraher, University of North Dakota professor, studies the homes as part of the North Dakota Man Camp Project and joins the show to explain.