Homelessness is a growing issue in America, and it’s not just confined to big cities. Small resort towns like Traverse City, Michigan are also feeling the effects of homelessness. In a recent video, YouTuber Nick Johnson explored the homeless camps in Traverse City, showcasing the struggles that these individuals face living on the streets in freezing temperatures.
The video provides a raw and eye-opening look at the homeless population in this otherwise picturesque town, shedding light on the challenges they face and the lack of resources available to support them. Johnson also touches on the rapid growth and development in Traverse City, leading to a housing shortage and rising costs, making it difficult for locals to afford to live in their own town.
Despite its beauty and charm, Traverse City is not without its problems, and the video highlights the need for more support and resources for the homeless population in the area. It also raises questions about the impact of rapid growth and development on small towns and the need for sustainable solutions to address these issues. Overall, “Homelessness Is Ruining America’s Resort Towns” provides a thought-provoking look at the reality of homelessness in unexpected places across America.
Watch the video by Nick Johnson
This place is oh my God holy there’s nobody here Look this is America today Travers City Michigan the best place to live in the state not for these people well that was crazy I was in Travers City Michigan I was talking to people in town about what it’s like to live here I told them this
Place is great but I hear there’s a lot of drama they said oh yeah there’s drama did you see the homeless camp in the middle of the town I was like no this was a real scene I tell you I’ve never seen anything like it and I do this for a
Living it’s everywhere now even in the best place to live in Michigan supposedly we’re going to come back to this mess later we’re going to see a lot more of this racket because I know you people like to ooh and a at all this Traver City Michigan the state’s
Most exclusive and popular Resort Town looking around you can see why a bunch of websites call this the best place to live in the state look at that view but there’s drama here a lot of drama drama for your mama and you people like drama don’t You All the great white North well it isn’t white today this was the fourth day on this big Great Lakes adventure and we still hadn’t had any snow even in northern Michigan the whole point of coming up here was to see cold and dark and well winter uhuh just so happened the time I
Finally decided to suck it up and do a real winter trip in real winterland and nope it had been like this up here in Travers City for just about the entire winter they had a few snows up here but the local news was already calling it Michigan’s lost winter and it was only
The middle of February one article I saw said this was one of the least snowiest Winters in Michigan’s history they were breaking records all over the state it’s just been unusually warm and well just not what it usually is only snow on the ground when we got
Here these big ugly piles that had collected dirt and trash biggest snow drifts in town were in the Walmart parking lot sucks but whatever you get what you get and by the end of the weekend I’d see some snow swear okay so where in the Michigan are we anyways we’re here
Traver City’s in northern Michigan just about as far up as you can go before you’re in the upper peninsula it’s right along Lake Michigan hello there she is that’s the first time I saw that Lake on this trip she sure is pretty hey guys here they come they see some suckers
That water’s freezing this time of year but it’s not frozen should be we’re going to circle that Lake right there we’re going to see a lot more of it believe me and we’re going to see other great lakes later in this trip you just wait till we get to the snow
That’s when the fun really begins but that’s later on Traver City has a population of 16,000 and it’s going up and that’s where the drama part starts there’s a lot of people in town who don’t like the going up part there’s drama everywhere in a America anymore these days
Huh travor city was an Old Logging Town back in the day they started laying track up here in the late 1800s because it was easy for them to get all the trees out of Northern Michigan lumber Barons made this place home for a long time and then 100 years ago they started
Planting cherry trees all over the area and that really made the place take off started throwing these big Cherry festivals up here so people came in and they were like wow this place is amazing and then they started promoting the place with Billboards and Tim Allen even did commercials to spread the word
That’s when everyone knew who Tim Allen was tell people around here I’m from Traver City they’ be like oh my gosh you’re so lucky to live there we love Travers what a wonderful place a lot of coastal michigans just like this nice and quiet conservative really pretty used to be somewhat affordable not
Anymore this place BW blew up became too big now there’s a big battle going on here between the growth and the no growth camps a lot of people say we need more people so let’s develop the hell out of everything make this a real Resort town and then everybody else is like no
We’re full don’t ruin it seems like the growth people winning this little airport in town saw 700,000 people come through last year that was a record by a lot people want to come up here and get away from the BS more and more these days place got discovered even more during Co
And then one website made it worse and they published a story about how this little Lake town now has more Millennial millionaires than anywhere else in the country they discovered it they’ve been coming here to work from home or maybe at their second home A friend of mine
Lives here and he said you see all these Tech bro 30-year-olds prancing around town and their expensive hip clothes and fancy cars now that’s the last thing you want up here hip cool Millennial know-it-all Bratz good Lord come up here in the summer and well
You can’t it’s full this is like the new hot spot for young people to come up here for their weddings and Bachelor parties there’s probably a dozen weddings a day up here on a summer weekend the place is booked solid a year out all the locals are like the whole
Now is filled with drunk tourists there’s nothing here for us locals now it’s all about the tourists that doesn’t sound like a desirable Resort town to me when I was here in town there was a big Todo about two new hotels that are in the works
A lot of the old-timers here said that they didn’t need more eyesores like this in town the roads are clogged we don’t have enough affordable housing the crime is getting worse enough is enough they fume but it’s happening changes in the air and you think that’s bad Amazon said
It’s building a warehouse up here uhoh this place is cooked was going to be1 th000 people up here one day so essentially a lot of people come up here in the summertime for a vacation usually just a weekend or maybe a week and they’ll stay at a hotel they’ll go
To all the restaurants they’ll be at the beaches out on the boats and stuff like that and they’ll go back home and they’ll have a fond memory of Trevor City but some people decide they liked it so much that now they want to live here and once they come up and actually
Buy property their attitude changes completely cuz now they’re a local and now they can make decisions and they can tell you what to do and what not to do and so I know a lot of locals that have were born and raised here kind of resent that fact that’s my buddy rolandale he’s
Born and raised Travers City we got together and had a pasty and a beer when I was in town it’s maxed out in the summertime I mean the traffic’s crazy you can’t find a place to park it’s hard to get to the beach you know there’s weight times at every
Restaurant so it’s hard to really justify living here year round as just a regular person if you can’t even really enjoy those wonderful summer months like my mom she moved here back in the early 80s and she’s the first to tell you it’s changed completely it doesn’t feel the same it
Doesn’t look the same you don’t even have the same kind of relationships with your neighbors so let’s talk the future of here that’s overnight that’s in the Thursday morning 11:00 a.m. system still pushing its way through so Thursday morning you should expect travel problems snow will be
Coming down if you got slushy snow adding up several inches well would you look at that it’s the first time we’ve seen snow it’s about time it’s what I came up for damn it ain’t much they thinking they’re gonna get two or three inches but it’s better than
Nothing jeez weirdest winter ever when this is considered a snowfall this is just a normal morning in most years on our second day here I woke up and saw our first snowfall so we drove around and checked everything out so exciting it’s not just locals gathering at the
Pasty shop to complain about traffic and long lines at the grocery store they have some real issues here police officers and teachers and other important people they can’t afford to live here anymore look they even have to close down some sometimes because there aren’t enough people in town that
Sucks there aren enough buses to get the kids to school and even the post office can’t deliver mail sometimes because they can’t find enough people to live here can’t afford it one of the resorts in town has to bring workers up here from the Caribbean and the summer so that they can stay
Open people are like there isn’t enough housing for us and you want to build all these new hotels you’re going to have to build public housing for all the illegal aliens that you’re going to have to hire I’m glad I don’t live here can only imagine how the City Council meetings
Go is anybody back here anybody home and then there’s the homeless thing remember this place hello when I heard about travers’s homeless problem that was pretty skeptical like how bad could it really be right but OMG bums bums bums this is all in a small wooded park
Right in the middle of town oh my God it’s like a whole village and Travers City Michigan the best place to live and oh my God people used to hike through here and just enjoy being outside but not anymore they don’t when we pulled up I saw maybe 20
Tents out by the road I walked up and started talking to people I met these two kind of wandering around they had a really interesting story that I’ll share later but anyway we got to talking and they said uh you think this is bad out
By the road you should go back and look in the woods so I did these people have a fence with their animals in oh my God I don’t think I’ve ever seen that they got the insulation foam that’s some permanent stuff right there they are dug in for the Winter all the shelters are full apparently and they draw these people in here with food and money and support and then there’s nowhere for them to stay so they’re camping in the woods but we’re not in the woods we’re a block from the supermarket on the main drag this is
Crazy apparently Travers City’s government has a policy that draws all these people in from all over Michigan they give them money and food and services so they’re flocking in here big time the locals are pissed I’m pretty sure they’re going to be even more pissed after seeing this I
Have a feeling that nobody in this small town knows just how bad it is in this park in the center of town I don’t think a lot of people come back here there’s been a bunch of overdoses back here and people have died just froze out here in the
Cold a lot of people in Traverse City either don’t know about this or don’t want to admit this is going on in their own town but it is there are villages in the Woods half a mile from downtown right behind the Meer and it goes on and the
Trash I don’t think I even want to go over there or do I yes I do oh oh my God what the Hell this place is oh my God holy there’s nobody here look own people left to live out in the woods in the cold do you think we’d make all these immigrants sleep out in the woods in a tent no they get whatever the hell they want they get hotel rooms and
Food I don’t know if you’ve heard but local governments are putting out a call to action saying hey does anybody have any room in their house they can take in these poor migrant families maybe help them get on their feet and get adjusted anybody speaks Spanish
Do you hear about calls to action for our homeless this is America today look you know me most of these people are bums and they want to live out here and get effed up all day but there are people it just goes on for hundreds of yards Traverse City Michigan the best place to live in the state not for these people I don’t think I’ve seen anything like this and I’ve been to a lot of homeless stuff Jesus Christ I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything like this before it’s so cold it’s probably
25 I’m freezing just walking around down here and there are probably 100 at least homeless tents and camps or homeless areas for at least a hundred people in the woods in the trash and we’re right right across the street from the main drag where everyone’s at this is crazy this country is in
Trouble ew these people are making everything terrible it’s gross my kids have to see this I shouldn’t have to pay 1.2 million for a house and step in homeless oh I get you Karen it’s one of the few things that you and I agree on but
What are you going to do about it help them get on their feet offer them a job maybe a place to stay maybe give them some money help them get some counseling maybe get their lives cleaned up that’s what I thought all you do is complain got Cherry
Orchards this is why this area is famous right here all cherry trees come out here in the summertime and there’s cherries everywhere those are future cherries that is a Cherry Orchard there’s cherry trees all over the county or were check this out they aren’t even making cherries up here as much anymore
The Cherry Capital of the world what I guess Farmers or their families they’re selling their land for development fancy new condos instead of cherry Orchards too much drama Farmers say overregulation and bugs weird weather forget it China’s driving down the cost of cherries they drive down the cost of everything
Chinese plus cherries just aren’t as popular these days us Americans don’t eat as many cherries like we used to I hear if you drive around up here in the summer you’ll see these big stinky piles of dead cherries that have gone to waste and more and more you’ll see
Cherry trees ripped out of the ground waiting to be burned I got the inside scoop from Sonia Richards who runs the Cherry stop in town um if you ever heard the phrase land rich and money poor you know that’s what’s happening and developers are coming in wineries are coming in they
Have a lot of money they want to do whatever it is they’re doing and people who’ve been in the farming industry for a long time you know they might be third or fourth generation but they’re just not making enough money because of the market um around the world with the cost
Of cherries it just doesn’t balance out and maybe their kidss don’t want to be Farmers anymore you know so what do you do with all that land and it just kind of makes sense to them to sell off but it is it is definitely a concern and
Honestly I don’t know around the country how much that’s happening but here it is definitely a problem it’s happening all over the country yeah yeah it’s a thing and it’s not just I know there’s a big push for small farmers to get started you know when you have hundreds of Acres
Of something that’s a big commitment you know and you have to bring in a lot of money to pay for that land and to pay for all the equipment and the people that are needed so there’s a big push now for small farmers to get started and
That’s kind of becoming a thing I know that Michigan state has some pushes that way um so maybe we’ll see more people picking up you know smaller farms and and doing some cherries and other fruits and things like that where they can maybe grow organically and get a higher
Price you know for for their product we’ll have to kind of see what happens but maybe the government will get involved I don’t know I don’t know where it’s headed but hopefully they stay around cuz it’s been a thing for a really long time time and it’s kind of
What we’re known for so but you got to pay your people yeah you know I don’t want to go live in China and I don’t you know I I wouldn’t feel good about doing what they’re doing that’s for sure so you know hopefully everybody in America
Can kind of start to see the the value there and know that buying America buying local that’s really what we need to be thinking about to support our own people well it’s about time we got some snow it’s day nine on the trip and it’s coming down pretty decent
You know an inch or two this is why we came up here and they haven’t had a lot of that this year but I’m prepared as you can tell cuz I’m a snow ready man with my mustache and I’m hoping that maybe I get some snow in this stash
There you go there’s a little bit of snow on my stash about ready to start heading up the hill towards the bridge on a snowy day in Travers City Michigan on day nine awful pretty isn’t it here’s a typical Travers City neighborhood pretty nice huh a lot of
People want to retire up here because it’s quiet kind of it’s more than $400,000 for a house now that might sound like a good deal but that’s a lot more than it used to be and it’s going up 7% a year now and then you go down to see the super
Fancy part of town over by the lake and it’s Buu bucks up there mister a lot of this is empty seasonal rentals folks with a bunch of land have a boat and a jet ski probably a snowmobile there’s a housing shortage here just like anywhere else it
Seems and all the rich people are making it worse they’re coming up here and snagging up homes for their second home or for weekly rentals rside investors are buying them up China’s probably buying them up I heard Traver City is going to ban Airbnb here soon they haven’t
Already got all these new homes going in people do not like It it’s a whole political debate about what to do with short-term Reynolds up here but they got to figure it out rent’s going to keep going up and people that grew up here are going to have to leave to make room for the New Breed these houses are all somewhere between1 and $2
Million nice homes I bet they don’t know their neighbors anymore half your pay for a view of the bay that’s what they say up here and by the way if you want to move to Michigan Travers City or anywhere in the state I know real all over the area
Email me and I’ll connect you to one now I’m going to show you what the bad side of Traver City looks like there are hoods the Poor Side of Town stuff around here sold for about 225 to 275 not too long ago this is really nice for the other
Side of the tracks huh everyone I think a lot of you were like that looks like the nice side of town where I live Traver City is really safe A lot of people here don’t even lock their doors maybe every 20 years there’s a murder but crime’s getting worse more shit’s getting
Stolen and with all these bums in town now you know how that’s going to go this right here is the cheapest home in town was listed for 239 when I was up here I’ll let you decide if you think that’s a good deal or not if you’ve got a lot of money this
Place is awesome you can do whatever you want you can be secluded you can have all the Privacy you need you can get away with a lot of but if you don’t have money yes there’s really not much going on there’s not much of a night life
Here um on the other hand a lot of people come up here to raise families because it is kind of great for that it’s very safe I really enjoyed my childhood here and it wasn’t until I started to get in my teenage years that I kind of felt a little more
Constricted and realized I got to go explore and and see what’s up in this world because can’t be just this but if this is what you’re after sort of isolation safety nature privacy then yeah it’s great for You h it can be really easy to be sheltered up here it’s mostly liberal white upper middle class they don’t want to acknowledge the real world that exists down in lower Michigan if you like diversity you’d probably be bored here there’s enough to do for those who are somewhat busy
Bodies downtown very nice and clean it has a little bit of energy to it even in the winter nightlife’s pretty quiet this time of year when the tourist drunks aren’t around only a handful of bces stay open past 11 in the winter a lot of people up here they
Spend their time Outdoors though there skiing there’s biking and Hiking all over of course course you have the lake and there’s wineries everywhere too there’s like 20 wineries up here may not know it but Travers City was once called the drunkest city in the state I know right what an honor and
That’s saying a lot for Michigan cuz they drink a lot up here snowy barely God it’s freezing I came all the way down here for this shot it’s not even that good of a shot and it is cold things I do for YouTube and as you know it is super cold
Up here Traverse averages something like 130 in of snow a year and that Lake that’s usually frozen over this time of year when I was here only 1% of Lake Michigan was frozen and according to all the experts and scientists that’s the second lowest ever by that date in
Midwinter usually it’s 30% Frozen this time of year check this chart out people around here are worried that one winter none of Lake Michigan will freeze at all they say that’s going to throw off the ecosystem of that Lake and screw up the tourist season well I can already tell you it’s
Screwed up the tourist season now cuz this place was kind of dead when we were here all right I came out here to get a good shot across the water it’s 24 four and the wind’s blowing and I don’t like it very much I don’t know how these people do it but
It’s beautiful out here so I guess there’s that out here in Traver City in the winter let’s give some to the Ducks cheesus it’s a Cheese party look like ants sh Lake Michigan when I was in Traver City I saw what I could it was damn cold so walking
Around was not fun not even with my boots and my heated vest and gloves and my coat on and everything didn’t matter it was a icy wind that just cut through everything walking downtown Trevor City right now it is cold probably 25 and windy feel like I’m glad I have this
Mustache it’s why I grew it keeps me warm my heated vest don’t go I’m not downtown was pretty quiet it’s way less busy here when it’s not summer and without all the snow there’s really no reason for tourists to come up here at all how’s it going good picture okay people are running
Hardcore not much snow on the ground but it is freezing I’ll tell you that can’t even feel my hands downtown travor city is nice very quaint very Charming of course you have the Cherry Hill Boutique we’re in the Cherry Capital of the damn world fancy jewelry because this place is fancy and art
And nice places to get clothes it’s very lovely I have to say I can see why why it’s so popular tell you that okay on the first night we went to seven monks tap room and we watched the UNC basketball game kind of wish I didn’t because they got smoked by a really
Lousy team that night we just had some pretzel bites in the local beer got to watch my waistline JK people also told me I need to check out a place downtown called bootleggers so I popped by but I think a few of these people recognized me so I didn’t go in
Ain’t got time for that not vibing on picks and autographs on my 20th anniversary night my manager and I just wanted some alone time please respect that people just a little bit of a social scene here in the middle of winter though I wanted to see snow but I’m not
Going to lie I kind of liked having the place to myself for a couple of nights it was kind of dead for this time of year but summertime good luck even sharing the sidewalk with folks and then after that my manager and I popped by a joint called you and I I
Was told that’s where all the Red Wings fans hang out and watch the game I was like okay let’s go hang out there but the game was on and nobody seemed to care much perhaps when the playoff start I also learned when I was here that the Red Wings used to train right
Here in Travers City in the preseason in that building right there but they don’t anymore because of money well judg them by the number of people that were watching wrestling when we were up here I think they’d be more excited about having a WWF up here anyway
Wrestling that’s what they like up here and hockey both nights we were out the hotel sent a shuttle to pick us up classy move Bayshore Resort located right on the water in Traver City on the second day we took a cruise out to the edge of town to see a
Roadside Attraction I’m a sucker for those and that right there there is the world’s largest cherry pie pan cuz you know this is the Cherry Capital of the world for now Michigan’s favorite thing to drink is craft beer I think they’re like top five in the country for craft beer
Production and consumption so of course I had to try the local breweries one day I went into silver Spruce Brewing was a chill place of course got to get a pass te cousin Jenny’s has the best in Travers City Michigan’s favorite thing to eat are pasties well up here in northern
Michigan anyways I’m going to talk a lot more about pasties as I continue my journey in this state I even did a pasty test in another video pasties are these hot pocket things that they fill up with all kinds of goodness beef chicken pork potatoes veggies Pizza stuff every place up here
Has their own twist on them the Europeans brought this idea over here when they were down in the iron mines they needed something easy that they could pick up and eat when they were underground I sat down with my buddy rolandale and we had one on a cold
Afternoon nothing like a PCI on a cold cold afternoon in Michigan Steak and cheddar woo all right on night two we went to a place called Rare Bird supposedly this is where the governor comes in when she’s here nobody likes her and this is where the celebrities eat when they’re in town in
The summer I didn’t see a celebrity though but you know what they say if you don’t see a celebrity then it must be you I drank a fancy drink that I can’t remember the name of that’s what you do when you’re famous drink things and forget things fun place though I like TC it’s been said when you call a place Paradise kiss say goodbye sounds like it’s bye-bye time for this joint another small town American Casualty it seems like every small town I visit is either crumbling away into dust or getting ruined by growth and wealth I spent a lot of time talking
About the drama here and the problems they have to deal with just like where you live there’s no perfect place will Traverse City Michigan get ruined one day I don’t think it’s possible for the people who’ lived here for a long time they might think so I think Northwest Michigan’s
Imperfections are trivial compared to most of our cities but you never know I don’t think anyone in town ever saw this coming and there’s really like two Traver cities and there’s the one that they want people to see when they come up here on vacation in the summertime
Usually and then there’s the one that everyone else has to deal with year round when they’re all gone what’s up man I’m is there like nowhere for you guys to go like it’s freezing cold out here you guys are you guys camping here it’s freezing cold you got they don’t
Have a shelter or anything for for people they do they have like a but they most of them have waiting list oh so there’s no room no oh man how many people are out here you got a YouTube channel yeah what is you why don’t you
Go in the shelter because me and her um she has separation anxiety okay and PTSD so she has somebody to be there when she goes to sleep so I’m also pregnant yeah you’re you’re pregnant out here yeah why can’t you go into the shelter it’s just
A I can’t really sleep without him oh and they’re you said said they’re full the shelter is full yeah most of them waiting list and there there churches is there anywhere that will take you churches won’t really take you unless somebody’s there and you can’t sleep there at
Night so you have no options except to sleep out here really though if we have a tent yeah yeah but I mean are you and you’re leaving you said you’re leaving yeah where are you guys going to go uh we’re going to move States we’re going
To go to Kansas you’re going to Kansas to like start a new life yeah really though okay what’s in Kansas I got a house down there oh yeah you have a house in Kansas mhm we’re going to go down there right now you just bought it
Yeah I’m excited bro oh what how’d you buy a house in Kansas from here Bitcoin Bitcoin shut up no for real how much did you make on bitcoin about 500,000 shut the up but it’s just in Bitcoin I haven’t withdrawn it yet so you have a half a million dollars in a Bitcoin
Account that you just bought a house what and you’re going to Kansas and you’re living in a tent right now y that’s why we’re just giving away our stuff when did you decide to do this yesterday we just got the plane tickets we got to go up there to the hospital
But you’ve had that money for how long about 3 days the Bitcoin money uh-huh why did it only come because I got it to set a gold of 500,000 so you’ve been you’ve been making all this money and you just decided I’m cashing out going to Kansas yep good for you man
Yep cuz it’s closer to my home state Texas okay mhm how long ago did you buy your Bitcoin um I’d say about half maybe a whole year ago it’s not been that long I am shocked this that is great story yep are you looking to move and need
Advice I do Consulting that’s right I’ll sit down and talk about where the next perfect place for you and your family should be I do it all the time together let’s find you a new home that’s safe and checks all your boxes and I can also
Help you find your new house too email me and I’ll work with you I’m not just helping you figure out where to move but I can help you find your perfect home too that’s right I know awesome reliable agents all over the country and I’d love
To connect you to somebody who can help you search for that perfect home and by the way if you want to learn about where you should live you should go to my website homes snacks.com sfind yourplace on my website you get tips on where you should move and what the costs
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Video “Homelessness Is Ruining America’s Resort Towns” was uploaded on 03/21/2024. Watch all the latest Videos by Nick Johnson on Gretopia