NATCHEZ — As Natchez plans and prepares for the growth spurt that many view as imminent the issue of housing will become increasingly more important.

With each new casino and business locating in the area come employees who need houses.

And one such project, already under construction, has illuminated what housing problems might face the Natchez area in the near future.

The new prison being built by Corrections Corporation of America currently employs approximately 160 construction workers.

And while the yet-to-be inmates are guaranteed housing, the same cannot be said for the crew building the prison.

Bobby Smith, senior project manager, said several members of the construction crew had great difficulties finding housing when they came to Natchez to start work on the CCA project.

“It was definitely an unexpected problem,” he said. “I haven’t seen this before.”

In fact Smith, who regularly relocates to work sites, said he had problems finding housing for himself when he arrived in Natchez.

Smith said several members of the construction crew went up to one-and-a-half months before they could find adequate housing in Natchez.

“A lot of guys were living in motels,” he said.

Smith said some members of the crew eventually gave up the hunt for housing and bought travel trailers to live in until the project is completed.

Smith said enterprising investors would do well if they would build middle-income apartment complexes in the area.

“People just can’t find a place to stay,” he said. “This area really does need more housing.”

Up for grabs.

While the Vidalia, Adams County and Jefferson County housing market normally keeps approximately 190 houses available, right now there are 230 houses on the market, said Vicky Ratliff, association executive for the Natchez Association of Realtors

There are several reasons for the availability of more houses on the market than normal, Ratliff said.

“Right now, interest rates are low and people are thinking they can get a bigger house for not much more,” she said. “People also know that businesses are coming to town, and they are thinking maybe it’s time to put it on the market because people will want something when (the companies) come in.”

Spring usually sees more houses on the market because parents who have taken jobs elsewhere want to wait until the end of the school year before they move their children, Ratliff said.

The low price for a house on the market right now is $50,000, located in the Morgantown area, but the high end — where construction and industry workers are not likely to move — is $500,000, Ratliff said.

The median home price on the market right now is $69,000.

Already home?

CCA’s Marketing Director Steve Owen said he does not think a housing shortage will impact CCA in the long run.

Owen said many of the problems being seen at the site deal with construction workers that will eventually leave when the prison opens in January 2009.

Owen also said since most of the 325 employees CCA is expected to hire will be local, new housing needs will be further decreased.

“We expect the overwhelming majority (of employees) to be local,” he said.

Owen estimated 85 percent of the new hires would be local, leaving very few individuals needing new housing.

Squeezing in, spreading out.

For those who will move in, there’s only one solution to the housing crisis, and it’s building more houses.

Such a seemingly simple solution proves to be complicated in Natchez.

While Realtors, developers and city officials realize that housing is desperately needed, not much land is available.

Interim City Planner Walter Huston said there is not enough space for the needed housing developments.

“Any type of housing projects are probably going to take place in the county,” he said. “We just have a lack of land here at the present time.”

Sue Stedman, of Crye-Leike Stedman Realtors Incorporated, echoed this sentiment.

“We’re pretty much built out,” Stedman said. “We’ve got pockets for small developments.”

She said what is needed is another development like Montebello or Westover neighborhoods, that have hundreds of houses in them.

“You’d have to get pretty creative to create that space,” she said.

She said a solution to the limited space would be to annex in county property.

Mayor Phillip West said he’s been gunning for annexation for awhile now, and the vote of support he had from the board was withdrawn and tabled.

“I know we need to expand the city but I can’t do it without the board,” he said.

West said a “high ranking official” from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is coming to Natchez within the next few weeks and the housing dilemma is a hot topic to be discussed.

“That’s part of the reason we’re going to speak with officials,” he said. “We’re going to expand the city.”

Desperately developing

There are developments that are taking place, but not enough to sustain the estimated amount of people that Grand Soleil, CCA and Rentech will be bringing in.

One development would help the situation, but has been stalled.

The Preserve, a housing development in the works behind the Natchez Mall, was to bring between 75 and 80 units, from single-family dwellings to duplexes and townhouses.

But Butch Stewart, owner of Coldwell Banker Stewart Realty, said negotiations are being made to sell part of the property to another entity.

“The process has slowed down because of that,” Stewart said. “The project is still ongoing but it’s not as fast as I like.”

The property has been cleared he said and engineers are working on getting the final plans done.

Huston backed this up when he said the site plan approving committee has not seen these plans.

Stewart said he believes the houses that will be built on this property will assuage the problem, but not solve it.

“We don’t have the housing to support the new jobs that we think are coming in,” he said.

Stedman said there is a high demand for single dwelling houses.

“And there’s a lot of pressure on what I call you middle income range, anything in that $150,000 give or take,” she said. “That’s always a real hot market because that’s where you have the most purchasers.”

She said she believes developers realize the need for these houses.

“I think they’re well aware of that and I think as soon as that demand materializes, you’ll begin to see some new construction,” Stedman said.

Someone who is developing some of those houses is Jody Foster, of River Homes.

Last year he built three patio homes on North Pearl at Madison.

“Two of them sold immediately,” he said.

He also recently purchased property on Auburn Avenue near Duncan Park.

“We’re probably going to start construction there pretty soon,” he said.

The property is divided into two separate pieces.

He said the first piece, which has already been cleared, will have nine lots. The other will have 15, and Foster said it will be a gated community.

Not far from Foster’s location, on Duncan Avenue, developer Dick Thompson has been constructing the first of a group of 20 houses he has planned.

On U.S. 61 South Glenn Green of Paul Green & Associates and Ricky Edgin of Edgin Construction Co. are working to clear 760 acres of land for a housing development — Hedges Plantation Land, LLC.

This is a start, but not where the city needs to be, Foster said.

“If everything that is talked about comes to fruition, I would say (we would need) anywhere between 75 and 150 new houses,” Foster said.

No need to commit

Not all the people coming into town are looking to stay here permanently — like construction workers who just want a place to rent.

Stewart said Natchez is lacking rental properties.

“Right now, it’s going to be a problem,” Stewart said. “We have no rental units, check the apartments, we have hardly any vacancies.”

Foster said he is looking into purchasing property to build an apartment complex.

He said he’s having a feasibility study conducted.

“I’m looking at the market demand’s current situation and evaluating it,” he said.

Supervisor President Henry Watts said there is a proposed development off of Morgantown Road, where 10 rental units will be built.

Watts said affordable housing is in high demand in the county, but the county currently does not have a plan to bring more in.

“The county should have some strategic housing plan,” he said.