Housing Subsidies for Digital Nomads

by Ryan Vagabundo

Speaking as a digital nomad myself, one of the biggest challenges for most of us is the cost of housing. Unless you have some sort of unusual medical or family support expenses to manage, your biggest bill by far is keeping an adequate roof over your head. Other expenses are usually relatively trivial and easy to manage with minimal work. It's the landlords that keep you grinding.

What if someone would just pay YOU to grace them with your presence?

It's actually not that far-fetched of an idea. Skilled digital nomads are a value-add wherever they go, but especially for places that are having regional economic and population difficulties. Digital nomads pull money in from outside of the community and spend it locally. Get enough together in one place and that's also an opportunity to revitalize abandoned areas and create all sorts of new markets for new local businesses.

A number of localities are wise to this idea and are actually running pilot programs to subsidize location-independent workers in various ways as an enticement to move there. Now, before you get too excited, a quick reality check on this: these are mostly places that have a serious need to spend money to attract transplants, usually because they aren't a very "desirable" place to live in some way or another. Malibu isn't going to be subsidizing digital nomads anytime soon.

If you're just focused on building your career or a business, though, you may not care all that much about "desirable." I'll live in a place that has some issues for a few years if you give me the right enticements. Hell, I've already paid to do that to leverage low-cost housing opportunities.

The other thing is that many of these are relatively new "pilot" programs with limited slots. They might take only a couple dozen or so people per year, and if they're being trialled that means they could up and disappear at any time.

So with that in mind, here's the current list of opportunities for digital nomads and other location-independent business folks. We'll open with the United States, since that's where I live and where the greatest amount of such programs that I'm aware of are. There's a section after that for various other opportunities around the world, however.

Housing Programs for Digital Nomads in the U.S.

1) Tulsa, OK

The city of Tulsa is running a number of revitalization programs backed by the family foundation of local billionaire George B. Kaiser. One of these is Tulsa Remote, which offers a pretty nice package to remote workers willing to go live there for at least one year: a free apartment in the downtown Arts District, a free berth at a co-working office location, and a stipend of $10,000 in total ($2,500 up front, $500 per month stipend and $1,500 at the end of the year).

The program was announced in late 2018 and just started settling its first applicants in 2019. They're accepting 20 people per year and it looks like they'll be taking applications for the following year in the fall. You can apply at their annoying website with its auto-playing video and lots of bloated mobile crap.

The requirements seem pretty basic: be full-time employed or self-employed as a remote worker outside of the county, be over 18 and eligible to work in the United States, and be able to move to Tulsa within six months of being accepted to the program.

Potential downsides: 5.25% state income tax, tornado country, top 20 worst cities for ozone air pollution (coal country), very humid in summer, MAGA and religious fundamentalist culture

2) State of Vermont

In 2018 the state of Vermont passed the Remote Worker Bill, an interestingly flexible piece of legislation. Rather than a specific locality, interested parties can settle anywhere in the state and then receive up to $5,000 per year and up to $10,000 total for the lifetime of the program.

This is a reimbursement rather than a stipend, though. It can be applied to moving costs, a lease deposit, computer hardware and software you need for your job, broadband internet access and co-working space rentals. This entry is a bit lateral, as rent isn't reimbursed, but potentially you could go to one of the lowest cost-of-living spots and save enough on other expenses to get a few months of free rent. Not sure if temporary lodging while looking for a place to live could be covered as a "moving expense" as well.

You can apply online here. Note that the grants are given on a "first approved first served" basis and the state has allocated about $125,000 per year to the program, so presumably only about 25-50 people will be able to do this per year.

Potential downsides: Super cold and snowy winter, state income tax of 4 to 7% for most, liberal culture but virtually no diversity, little public transit and everything is very spaced out (vehicle virtually required), high gas and food prices

3) Baltimore, MD

The Vacants to Value Booster Program in Baltimore targets homes that have been vacant for a year or more. The program provides up to $10,000 that can be applied toward the downpayment and closing costs.

Potential downsides: Possible "The Wire" type neighborhood, lot of food deserts, very humid in summer

4) Dothan, AL

This offer is specific to Jewish families. Jewish Community Services of Dotham is offering to set up families willing to relocate to Dothan with a $50,000 package of incentives including $7,500 for housing costs, $7,500 to cover relocation and $15,000 to start a small business. They also apparently network on your behalf to try to set you up with a job soon after arriving. It's not clear if by "family" they actually require you to have a spouse and/or kids.

Junk Programs

There are quite a few of these "free housing if you relocate" lists around and about the internet, I guess they're popular with lazy content creators >_>. The difference here is that I at least did actual fact-checking on these things, though.

Like, a lot of sites list these "free lot" programs in various small towns and cities that really don't belong here. Most of these are years-old at this point and were just for like one specific subdivision they built that is probably full by now. Also, the lot might be free but there's like at least $20k in mandatory fees associated with building a house within their timeframe.

I'm also ruling out the Alaska Permanent Fund even though that gets mentioned a lot (even though it isn't really a "housing program" per se). I actually lived in Alaska for a while, so I know something about this firsthand. Pretty much anyone in the state can just go ahead and sign up for it their first year living there, and you'll get somewhere around $1,000-2,000 each year (depending on oil profits) without much hassle. Here's the catch, though - you have to sign a statement claiming you intend to permanently settle in the state. If you leave the state and don't come back, you're not only supposed to pay back the money, but if you don't pay it back they charge you annual interest on it. Apparently the state is real aggressive and nasty with this and I heard horror stories of them letting like military members and other people who are clearly transient sign up for it, then waiting for like 10 years after they left the state, then zapping them with a huge bill and threats of prosecution if they don't pay everything they took back plus all that interest. It's not something to fool around with.

Housing Programs for Digital Nomads Outside the United States

1) Borgomezzavalle, Locana and Candela, Italy

Some small northern Italian towns are looking to attract new blood by paying for it. In early 2019, Locana announced that they would pay families €9,000 over the course of three years to relocate. Families must have at least one child and a minimum €6,000 annual income.

Borgomezzavalle apparently has some abandoned mountain cottages for sale for $1 USD to any interested parties. The requirement is that you fix them up to local code within two years.

And, at least as of late 2017, the town of Candela was offering a one-time payment of 800 to 2000 Euros to relocate there depending on family size (singles are welcome but only get 800) along with various tax credits. The new residents just need to rent a place to live there and have a regular income of at least €7,500.

Though aimed primarily at Italians, foreigners do appear to be welcome if they can secure an appropriate visa.

2) Chile

Chile currently has an ambitious program designed to court tech startups with all sorts of funds. Foreigners are not only welcome, but encouraged with a one-year visa and some financial incentives. There are several different plans for different types of startups: ones with female founders, ones that already have a functional product and ones that have a positive social or environmental focus. Available funding ranges from the equivalent of $25,000 to $80,000 USD.

3) Ireland

Ireland is similarly looking to attract tech startups and is willing to pay for them. The Enterprise Ireland program is looking for international businesses that can create 10 jobs and €1m in export sales within 3 years of starting. A number of different high-value grants and vouchers are available to qualifying startups.