The billingsgazette reports because housing is so scarce and wages are so great in the Bakken Oilfield in western North Dakota, the running joke is the oilfield holds the record for homeless people with $100,000 incomes. A housing summit last spring determined the need for 5,000 housing units for the area over the next two years. Demand has spawned another housing supplier, Canadian-American Structured Solutions, Inc (CASS), which opened its doors just a few months ago in Billings, Montana. The company ships modular four-plexes and duplexes to Canada and the U.S., especially to the Bakken for worker housing. Says CASS CFO Larry Nelson: “I would say the fallout from the Williston (ND) area is 25 percent of our business.” What concerns the workers most is not the amenities, but whether the inside stays warm, and the pipes do not freeze, MHProNews has learned. Jeff Lee of American Homes sells a super insulated 560 square foot modular hunter’s cabin with homelike features, some of which go to the oilfields.

(Photo credit: Casey Page/billingsgazette–Kari Andren and Mary Pipal inspect a man camp from Signature Cabins.)