James MacPherson / AP

Alton and Mary Lou Sundby rest during a move into a new apartment in Williston, N.D. on Oct. 27, 2011. The Sundby's were notified last month that their rent would nearly triple to $2,000 a month.

In a previous PhotoBlog post I showed how “man camps” are springing up in the North Dakota oil fields to deal with the housing shortage caused by an oil boom near Williston, N.D. The oil is suddenly available because of a new drilling technology known as “fracking” that frees formerly unreachable oil and natural gas.

However, in a cruel twist of unintended consequences, the same booming developments that have made North Dakota virtually immune to the Great Recession has forced many longtime residents to abandon their homes because of higher rent, including seniors who carved towns like Williston out of the unforgiving prairie long before oil money arrived.

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