Last summer I worked at a state park and honestly, I loved working there. But I was still stressed as all get out. The whole surrounding area is expensive to live in and technically, I didn't even make enough to live paycheck-to-paycheck. I spent my entire first of two monthly paychecks on rent (sometimes had to save a bit from second paycheck too in order to make rent). I then used my credit card to pay for groceries and gas, praying that my second paycheck would cover it every month. This is with the best deal on housing that I could have possibly gotten in that area ($850/mo and closer than most apartments, the cheapest of which were studios for $1300/mo), mind you. The park had two employee apartments above the main office: one bedrooms (barely) that they charged $600/month for. They were both occupied by two people each when I got the job.
When my season at the park was ending, several of the full-time staff were talking about how they were going to increase wages next year, and build more (and better) employee housing, etc. because they knew how expensive the area is and they're just desperate for seasonal employees. Most of the full-timers also hounded me and a few other seasonals who had done well, trying to get us to come back next year. They even tried to get us to stay on and fill volunteer positions over the winter. So when the park's seasonal hiring opened up for this year I took a look out of curiosity.
They were trying to staff the entire park with volunteers. There were zero paid positions available outside of the seasonal rangers (still vastly underpaid). There was no employee housing available, as it was only open to paid employees, not volunteers. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
A few months later I saw that they'd started offering pay again. Almost as if they didn't get any applicants because no one can survive without money. Weird, right? They're still paying the same rate as last summer ($15/hr for rangers, $13/hr for everyone else). I hope no one applied for any seasonal positions there this summer. I'm sure rent has gone up in the area, so employees would have to literally live out of their cars and/or work 24/7 in order to survive. Wtf is wrong with this country?