I'm from a coal mining region of the country. At one time not really that long ago, meaning in my lifetime, miners lived in company housing and shopped at the company store. I don't know how the prices were but there were few other nearby places to shop. Travel was not as easy as it is now and cars less common. I also don't know what rents were nor what the houses were like, either. The supervisors also lived in the coal camps but typically in a bigger, if not necessarily nicer, house that was invariably a little further up the hill. I doubt that miners were required to lived in company houses but that was also a day when men would be more likely to walk to work instead of driving.