Housing for the workforce?

While the housing market in Sampson County has seen growth, affordable housing for the county’s workforce remains something that is out of reach for many moving into the area for new jobs.

Workforce housing, as defined by the Urban Land Institute, is housing that is affordable to people earning between 60 and 120 percent of the area median income. To put that into perspective, the median household income in 2022 for Sampson County, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, was $49,963. Based on those numbers, workforce housing in Sampson County would then be for anyone who makes between $29,977 and $59,955 a year.

The ULI stated that workforce housing specifically targets jobs like police officers, firefighters, teachers, healthcare workers and retail clerks.

In Sampson County, there are 23 public schools with the two school systems — Sampson County and Clinton City schools — which means hundreds of teachers have made Sampson County their home. And, if workforce housing targets this specific demographic of people, the question then becomes has the lack of workforce housing had an impact on the teachers being hired to work in the area?

Sheila Peterson, executive director of human resources at Clinton City Schools, said the lack of rental properties and apartments has been issue when recruiting new teachers. She noted that teachers moving from out of the area would have to invest in buying a house if they wanted to be able to stay in the school system.

“We have a major issue with recruiting teachers here due to housing,” Peterson attested. “If they want to come here, then they would have to invest in purchasing a house due to the lack of rental properties and apartments that are in the Clinton City Schools area.”

Clinton City Manager James (J.P.) Duncan admitted that workforce housing is something that is needed in the area, but it is not a project in which the city is actively working to resolve.

“If a project (for workforce housing) ever came up, you know, I’d absolutely jump all over it. There’s not really anything that I’m aware of at least, but it would be a terrific thing if it were to come up,” Duncan said.

But, the city manager said, the city, as a organization, has not run into the problem of not being able to hire anyone due to housing issues or the lack of housing.

“We haven’t, at least to this point, experienced trouble hiring folks because they couldn’t find a place to live. Now, I’m not saying it won’t change tomorrow, but in my experience, we’ve been able to hire people and housing has not been a barrier to somebody working here,” Duncan said.

Sampson County Manager Ed Causey shared much the same sentiments.

“I don’t think we have done a lot in just new housing, specifically for the workforce,” Causey stated. “I think it’s something we would encourage. It generally would depend on the private developers to take care of.”

But he said having more affordable housing was a need in the county.

“We hear that there is a need for housing, particularly in the market less than $300,000-$360,000. Yes, I think there is certainly a need in the county,” he said.

At the state level, Sen. Brent Jackson said workforce housing is something that state government is looking into, and he said it’s something that the state is in dire need of from county to county.

“We’ve tried to spend a lot of money on the state level for workforce housing,” Jackson said. “But, I mean, there is a dire need for workforce housing all across the state.”

He said the state has put millions of dollars into workforce housing and that it’s something they will continue to do.

“Over the last few years, we’ve probably put close to $100 million in workforce housing in this state through various means. Whether it went through the housing finance authority, or whether it went directly to individual counties,” he stated. “Labor, workforce in general and workforce housing seems to be the one and two priorities we keep hearing about.”