For Bozeman’s John Wallace and his girlfriend DeeDee, the coming weeks are a time of uncertainty. The couple has been living in a camper trailer on Bozeman’s streets for the past few years, and now they must decide what to do when the city’s ban on urban camping takes effect Wednesday.

Laid off from a lumber mill in Townsend during the pandemic, Wallace said he relocated to Bozeman and found work at a local gas station. Faced with a city-wide shortage of affordable rentals, Wallace said he soon fell into a life of poverty and, for the past five years, has periodically moved his camper trailer around the streets of Bozeman.

“You gotta come up with the first and last month’s rent ... It’s like $3,500 up to five grand,” Wallace told Montana Free Press when asked about renting an apartment a

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