Arkansas county offering major money to work, live there

by: Staff

MISSISSIPPI COUNTY, Ark. — Mississippi County, Arkansas is offering up to $50,000 for manufacturing workers to buy or build homes in an effort to attract and retain top talent in the area.

The county’s Work Here. Live Here initiative enables eligible workers to receive a forgivable loan of up to 10% of the home’s purchase price, ranging from $100,000 to $500,000. Local industries have invested $2.2 million in the program.

Randy Scott, who was on the board that created the program, said the idea started about two years ago.

“We did some brainstorming on why people are not living here,” he said. “We have great paying jobs, largest steel county in the nation, yet people are still not choosing to live here. We realized we didn’t have an inventory of new homes. It’s been 30 years since we’ve had new subdivisions.”

To qualify, applicants must work in the manufacturing sector in Mississippi County, purchase or build a home in the county, agree to own the home for at least four years, and stay with the same employer for at least four years.

Fairway Mortgage manager Dana Austin says the program aims to help young adults get established.

“So many young people moving here and living here and working here and thriving here, and having that money, they can use that money that they had maybe in their savings account,” Austin said.

Anticipating a surge in demand from the program, a real estate agent told us that a local farmer is building homes on their land to welcome new residents.

“This subdivision is built off of Work Here Live Here,” agent Braxten Tatum said. “The farmer, who is a local school board councilman, he wanted to grow the community and have a lasting, sustainable community here, so he took some of his farmland and built brand-new homes and they’re gorgeous.“

We asked homeowner Jake McDowell, who was busy building a fence around his property, about the fine print.

“People talk bad about Mississippi County like it’s there’s nothing here, but since I’ve been here, I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of business slowly coming in and I mean more,” McDowell said. “People are obviously gonna move here. … It’s free money. It’s kind of hard not to move here.”

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