According to the 2020 U.S. censu Cook County in northeastern Minnesota had 5900 housing units More than half of them were vaca In other words, they were seasonal or second hom The county is a vacation destina hosts more than a million visito but that demand for housing has difficult for year round workers to find housing.

Reporter Kaomi Lee met two sisters in Grand Marais who to help change that.

Hello.

- Hi.

I'm Kaomi from TPT.

I'm Mariah.

- Mariah.

Maranda and Mariah Deschampe are used to being outliers.

Not only are the sisters identic Who is older?

- I am by 12 minutes.

The 26 year old care center nurs grew up in nearby Grand Portage and were able to b right in Grand Marais.

Usually, if there is like somewhere to re that's advertised, it's gone within like a day.

But that's still to people who can actually afford it, because the rent is usually over And that's a lot to a lot of peo in this town.

The young women moved into their three bedroom, one ba nearly two years ago.

They say they agree on most ever For the most part, we get along all the time.

Including keeping their home obsessively c I think it's gotten worse as we've gotten older.

They're brand new home and million dollar view of Lake Superior cost them $300, Their monthly mortgage payment i over $2,000 a month, which they They saved for a down payment by socking away their paychecks and living at home with their pa They consider themselves lucky.

A lot of people aren't able to s because there's nowhere to live.

And to afford a house, especially a brand new one, you'd have to probably get like at least two jobs.

We have a lot of open positions in several different departments but if we get travel like CNAs o they like want to extend, but they have nowhere to stay, like nowhere to rent.

Housing in Grand Marais has been supply for decades.

A lot of people, if you don't wa an answer, you don't ask us ques That's kind of how we're known, because you're going to hear it.

When sisters Anna and Sarah Hamilton moved here decades ago.

They paid $200 a month for a cab on the Gunflint Trail.

How lucky were we?

But that went away a long time a As soon as people discovered that they could make a lot of mo renting out their cabin to people on a nightly basis or weekly basis, they did that.

The long time residents and rest owners decided to do something.

The lack of workforce housing meant workers were worki 2 or 3 jobs and sharing living s People of all ages were getting out of their home town.

The majority of the people that need to be serviced.

So that means the blue collar li That's what we've always been.

So theyre at the gas stations a the restaurants and the grocery and the gifts stores.

Even the hospitals and the schoo They started with a one bedroom We had a woman approached us and if you were a nonprofit, I'd give you $100,000.

And we just about fell over.

And Hamilton Habitat was hatched Now on their ninth home, they get the materials at cost from Anna's employer.

They hire the labor and do a lot the finishing work themselves.

They find rare plots in town by good old sleuthing.

In the winter, I go through the and I write people.

If there's a lot of, you know, s not built on and I just ask them if they're interested in selling And the last two homes we did la That's how I got that lot.

The Hamilton's two new homes a year aren't going to solve all County's affordable and workforc housing needs, but many in the community say every home counts.

We don't have a vacancy rate, so that's one of the challenges A study says Cook County needs up to 600 units by the end This housing project is the firs new development in a quarter cen 51 apartment units, about half will have income caps.

It's built on land acquired from Hill says 100 more area units are in the pipeline.

Some blame short term vacation r for the lack of workforce housin Hale says it's not the full stor Every unit that's not being used for single family that could be you know, net loss, so to speak, of units for, for for However, it's actually about giv or take 10, 15% of the number of that are actually seasonal or second homes.

So in other words, there's like 2500 plus seasonal that could be potentially full t By comparison, the county says there are 365 short term rental properties, excluding Grand Marais.

Sarah Hamilton owns and manages Trail Center, a fixture on the Gunflint Trail.

She also has a nonprofit called One Spirit.

It mentors Lakota young people f Pine Ridge Reservation in South We just purchased a with donatio a food truck for the kids I have working here now.

They're going to train on it nex and then take it home to the res with them and have their own job And Anna has future plans too, i creating a village of workforce The biggest thing for us, and I speak for you, is that peo trust us, you know, to have complete strangers send because they believe in what we one of the biggest compliments o Locals say the community has emb these Iowan transplants and the work they're doing.

Hard workers.

Straight shooters.

You don't have to guess.

But very much loved, people resp I'm glad they're here.