susansiens on Nostr: A lot of the U.S. is just the same. You can find a job in Portland, Maine, but the ...

A lot of the U.S. is just the same. You can find a job in Portland, Maine, but the rents are insane. Decades ago a former nun in Hancock County, Maine, characterized it as a third-world country. The natives are often dirt-poor and every summer they get invaded by people with lots of money. Sister Lucy started an organization when she found old women dying in their homes for lack of heat, and though she is elderly and retired, the organization -- H.O.M.E. -- continues, building houses, supplying firewood, growing food, running a daycare and various educational programs, a thrift shop, etc.

Even here in rural Maine I don't consider rents reasonable. A lot of people live with their parents or their parents help them build a house on the same land. There's a house locally that is always lived in by the grandmother and mother; when the grandmother dies, the daughter moves in with her mother, always passed down through the women.