OCEAN CITY, Md. - Like the coming and going of the tides, come and go the throngs of visitors to Ocean City each summer
In fact, the town's population swells to as much as 300,000 at times, which strains the local workforce and requires workers from abroad.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, it's become more difficult to hire foreign seasonal workers, also known as J-1 workers. During the pandemic, apartments for these workers were converted to other uses.
"What they did was they converted them to Air BnBs, rentals, and started to rent them out as rental properties to tourists," said Sam Delanter, owner of the Sunrise Diner, who employs several J-1 workers during the tourist season. "And then you lost a big portion of the properties for J-1 students during that time."
A new project for dormitory-style housing has been proposed to house as many as 2,500 J-1 workers in West Ocean City near the Park-and-Ride.
In April, Ocean City's mayor, Richard W. Meehan, penned a letter to Maryland Governor Larry Hogan expressing the town's support for the project. The letter is important to help the developer, Holtz Builders, Inc. of Wisconsin, get low-cost financing from the state needed to keep the development affordable for the workers.
Ocean City business advocates are happy to see government agencies working together toward a solution to the housing problem.
"Now there finally is almost like a light at the end of the tunnel where there really has been a collaboration between city, county, state," said Susan Jones, executive director of the Ocean City Hotel Motel and Restaurant Association. "At least everybody is talking and we're all on the same page now."
Diner owner Sam Delanter is pleased with any action that moves this project forward.
"We've been pulling teeth trying to get workers the past few years," Delanter says. "And anything that helps get more foreign workers over here is very helpful."
