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Old 09-15-2016, 05:24 AM
 
382 posts, read 507,601 times
Reputation: 546

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I may end up with a contract position in Benton Harbor soon and need some specific housing recommendations from people in the local area. I have read several threads here, and other sources, that have pretty well put me off of living in Benton Harbor proper, but it seems like virtually any of the surrounding areas are pretty decent places to be. Unfortunately no one ever mentions specific apartment complexes or even extended stay hotels (and sadly, even all but the very most expensive hotels in the area get pretty awful reviews and I can only find one extended stay, at all, and it's both very expensive and booked solid through mid-November... all of the local apartment places get awful reviews as well). It seems most people that have asked here before were looking to permanently relocate to the area and buy a home, which isn't the position I'm in at the moment.

I own a home in Indiana and would likely spend the majority of my weekends here, so all I really need are the basic necessities to get me by a M-F work week. I don't really even care about the proximity to local shopping or entertainment as I will do that all on my weekends. I'll be there to work, not play. However, I'd like to keep the commute down to under 20 minutes. The position does provide a salary that accommodates for temporary housing, so I'm not looking for the absolute low ball of low ball places to stay, but I don't want to pay more than my mortgage or a 10x10 room either.

In addition to recommendations, if you have a good place I could rent on a short term basis, here are a few more details: It's a "3 month" contract to direct hire position, which really could mean anything from a few weeks to a few years (though at that point I'd probably do something more permanent) and it would likely start around the first of October. I don't need anything more than a place to put an air mattress, a TV+laptop, some clothes, some food (and a place to prepare it), internet access, and a bathroom (preferably an un-shared bathroom) for 5 days a week. I would also vastly prefer off-street parking and would pay a premium for a garage space. I also shouldn't have need of a laundry area (I can do that at home), but it would be nice to have the option in an emergency if I get snowed in or something, which is almost certain to happen a couple of times over the winter. I'm a male in my late 30s, college grad in an office job profession (I believe the job will require a criminal background check and drug test, so you can rest assured that if I'm there I have no problem with either and I certainly don't want to deal with anyone who does), currently own my own home, and generally lead a pretty quiet life as a home body. I have no kids or pets (but don't mind either) and I'm exceptionally unlikely to have any visitors or even "move in" (I'll go down to Walmart and buy the few things I'll need). I am a smoker, but would be happy to keep that outside if you prefer and I may as well call myself a non-drinker at this point as my partying days are long behind me (and certainly not during the work week). I haven't rented a place since 2009, but I may be able to contact my old landlord as a reference for you if I can track them down. I'll be up there on Tuesday (potentially Monday evening too) if anyone that has a place to rent wants to meet and show it to me. I'd vastly prefer to meet someone this way than wade through various people and property management firms on Craigslist. Most of those places are going to want to move much slower than I'll need and I also would prefer not to mess with putting utilities and such in my name and laying security deposits out all over town for what may be a temp job that only goes a few months. Renting a vacant room in an empty nester's house or half a split level/duplex or something, where all utilities are included in the rent, would be ideal.

I appreciate any and all responses. If this opportunity arises I'll need to act fairly quickly so I really appreciate any help provided since I have almost no time for research.
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Old 09-21-2016, 03:07 AM
 
382 posts, read 507,601 times
Reputation: 546
Well, I went for my onsite interview today and the hiring manager himself said "I think this was an excellent interview" so I'm probably going to be heading to Benton Harbor for work in the near future. I have been fooled before though, but those were some pretty strong words.

Can anyone provide me with any insights at all? Even the hiring manager said that some of his coworkers are commuting like 2 hours to come to work. That's completely ridiculous. Surely there is a small corner of the near surrounding area that has a peaceful and modest space to rent? The best I have come up with so far is a 2 bedroom vacation home on the beach for like $2500/mo on a 3 month lease, which is actually more money than 16 nights a month at a *nice* hotel.

If the answer is just straight up "no, there's nothing like that up there", then please tell me that as well. It's going to be massively expensive to eat all of my meals out and live in just a regular hotel room in a quiet part of the area so I need to know if I will even be able to afford to pay for that with whatever offer they present. I traveled past the budget areas of Benton Harbor proper and my research was accurate (and the hiring manager also confirmed it), so those are completely off the table.
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Old 09-17-2017, 07:01 PM
 
382 posts, read 507,601 times
Reputation: 546
Just to follow this up with a closing statement now that the entire situation is past me and there is VERY little information about the area in internet searches...

I ended up renting a small, and moderately run down, 1 bedroom apartment in St. Joe for $550/mo (which was "a steal" in that area... I shared a house that had been converted to apartments with 4 other tenants, which is representative of most of the housing you will find in the area) that included heat, but nothing else in the rent. It was on Wayne St. about 4 blocks from Lake Michigan. Most nights after 9pm it was the quietest place I have ever lived and would recommend the area to just about anyone. Granted, I lived there in the winter so I don't know anything about what it is like in the summer, and I traveled back to my house every weekend so I wasn't around for that either.

I would not, under any circumstances, intentionally live in Benton Harbor (in 5 months I stopped in a gas station in Benton Harbor ONCE and was immediately pan handled... that's the expectation of the area). Nor would I suggest that anyone buy a home in St. Joe when initially moving to the area. The prices are astronomical for what you can get 15 miles away. That goes for rentals too. I had initially considered renting 1/2 a duplex in Baroda (about 10 minutes of driving from Benton Harbor) that was 3 bedroom, 2 bath, and a one car garage for $775/mo. That in St. Joe would have been like 2 grand or more in a house that would probably be 80 years old.

In any event, Craigslist was the way to go to find rentals. The stuff on other web sites was just trash, section 8 apartments, or insanely expensive lake-front property. Even on the off-season the lake-front guys wanted huge money for rent. Trust me, the shore of Lake Michigan in January is not a great place to be and it was a mild winter...

Anyhow... That's the summary and my closing thoughts on having rented and lived in the Benton Harbor/St. Joe area for a few months. I'm sure life-long residents all have their own opinions to offer as well, but if you'll be a first timer in the area I encourage you to heed my advice. The housing gets better and cheaper the further from St. Joe you get and Benton Harbor is just not acceptable for most people.
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Old 09-19-2017, 07:22 AM
 
1,996 posts, read 3,139,444 times
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Thanks for sharing. This is interesting information
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Old 09-23-2017, 11:05 AM
 
Location: Detroit
3,671 posts, read 5,856,285 times
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I been to BH quite a few times because I have family and some friends that live/ lived there. It's pretty rough for a tiny town with little to offer. Just about everybody I know wants to leave the BH area. With that being said, I never personally felt unsafe in BH and St. Joe across the river is pretty nice and safe from what I hear. I had no idea St. Joe was so expensive though, probably to keep the working class and poor people in BH.
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Old 09-24-2017, 09:34 AM
 
382 posts, read 507,601 times
Reputation: 546
Quote:
Originally Posted by MS313 View Post
I been to BH quite a few times because I have family and some friends that live/ lived there. It's pretty rough for a tiny town with little to offer. Just about everybody I know wants to leave the BH area. With that being said, I never personally felt unsafe in BH and St. Joe across the river is pretty nice and safe from what I hear. I had no idea St. Joe was so expensive though, probably to keep the working class and poor people in BH.
I never particularly felt "unsafe" in BH, but I didn't go out messing around trying to find unsafe conditions either and I don't really want to live somewhere that has a real risk of that. It wasn't that many years ago that BH had the highest rates of violent crime in ALL of Michigan... I don't mean highest per-capita either, I mean straight up the most occurrences (beating Detroit, Flint, etc). At that time it was one of the most dangerous cities in America.

As a commuter my Sunday night drive back to town took me straight down Pipestone to Main St street and then on across to St. Joe. I actively avoided doing that as much as possible by taking 139 (many fewer stops) to Main St instead. Even at that, I would see things like pretty obvious drug deals going on in parking lots of abandoned businesses along the way if I got back into town any later than about 8pm, which I tried not to do. I also never had any of those pretty obvious drug dealers try to mess with me either. They were doing their business and I kept to mine. On what might be a bright side to this kind of economy, morning traffic is virtually non-existent in BH. I stayed in a hotel right by "the mall" for my first 6 weeks or so in town and I had to be at work at 7 so I was on the road at around 6:45 every morning and I barely ever saw more than maybe 10 other cars on the road and almost no lights on in the houses I drove past (I kinda wondered if those people had kids or maybe school starts later up there or something?). What I understood from the locals is that most of the city is either on public assistance or works service jobs that generally begin later in the day, but my first day of work started at 9 and it wasn't much different then either IMO.

As far as appearances, there wasn't much difference between "down town" St. Joe and Benton Harbor if you needed to go out shopping or whatever. My biggest complaint was that everything was always just packed at the big stores (like Walmart and Meijer... even the Meijer in Stevensville was always slammed) so I did my main shopping on the weekends at home and brought stuff with me and then just filled in the blanks at the small grocers in St. Joe, which were actually quite decent.

I'll also toss it out there, perhaps incorrectly, that I think most people would have an easier time in BH if they are black. The town is something like 90% black so it's exactly the inverse of most of America so being the white guy I stood out like a sore thumb. I never had any sort of crazy feeling that the populace was conspiring against me because I was white, but it was obvious I wasn't a local and it was hard to just mix in with the citizenry. Standing out anywhere you're not familiar with just isn't a good idea, but I couldn't avoid it.

As far as the housing costs to BUY in St. Joe, it made no sense to me as a guy that lived there in the winter and is also a home body anyhow. It wasn't so much an intentional economic barrier (the drive from St. Joe to BH is literally a couple of minutes to anywhere in either town, and like I said, I did get a "cheap" rental in St. Joe in a pin-drop quiet neighborhood) as much as it was that St. Joe just had way more stuff to do... That said, you're also not going to find ANY section 8 housing in St. Joe because they don't have to offer it to attract people. I guess in the summer it's a popular destination for all sorts of tourists from Chicago to go hang out at the lake so the prices on a lot of stuff reflect that. To me, it felt very much like a hipstery kind of town with little expensive micro-brew type bars all over the place. My first day of work my boss took me to one of those places for lunch. A "meh" burger with a few chips and pickle spear was like $12 and that was the lunch menu... I think the drink special was a $5.99 pint of some craft brew of some kind. To me, those were big city prices. I never went out to anything but fast food the entire time I was up there because I didn't feel like paying for it. The prices at the grocery stores were all reasonable though. I also heard that there were good, and dirt cheap, local restaurants in BH proper, but I never checked into them. I was there to make money, not spend it.
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