For Short’s Brewing in Bellaire, Michigan, the breaking point came last year. It happened when leadership became aware that one of the brewery’s employees—unable to find any available rentals in the touristy lakeside town—was living out of a car. Two other employees had recently quit, citing the need to move back in with their families in other towns or states.
Scott Newman-Bale, the brewery’s CEO, says this was the final straw that convinced the company it needed to find a fast solution to the lack of worker housing. “It was pretty clear that there was a massive need,” he says. “People were just trying to survive.”