You'd think that a ski area that boasts these kinds of lines could figure out a way to help its workers find affordable housing.when he arrived in Colorado in early December 2022. He had traveled more than 3,200 miles from his hometown of San Ramón, Costa Rica, about an hour and a half outside of the country’s capital of San José. But that excitement quickly faded once he began looking for a place he could afford to rent in the Vail Valley.
That’s a hefty price for someone who makes only $22 per hour working part-time at one of the ski rental shops at the resort, he points out., part of a temporary visa program that allows foreign students to come to the U.S. to work as au pairs, camp counselors or similar jobs. Some students come because the jobs pay well, and the money they take home can go a lot further in countries like Argentina, where every U.S. dollar trades for about 200 pesos.