Andrei Cojocaru for Business Insider
Alfred Perry got word on Labor Day weekend. He'd just thrown one of his signature cookouts in the courtyard of his apartment complex in Las Vegas.
It was the kind of laid-back life he came southwest for. A Chrysler retiree from the Detroit suburbs, Perry enjoyed the warm weather and lights of Vegas as he was driving through over three years ago. He decided to stay. As luck would have it, he said, he had enough left from his pension and Social Security checks when Dan Wright offered him a studio apartment downtown. Perry put down the first month's rent and a deposit and moved in shortly after.
But when a relative told him to come back to the Midwest to handle a family emergency that September of 2022, Perry didn't hesitate. He had paid that month's rent, he said, and set out on the long trek to fetch his 5-year-old son, whose mother was in crisis.