Muncie, Lafayette, Richmond recruit at-home workers one family at a time

MUNCIE, Ind. − The U.S. Census estimated a smidgeon population increase for Delaware County in 2021 of 202 residents. It was notable for being the first increase in a decade.

The City of Muncie has spent to past year working to turn that small increase into a more substantial rise. Part of the effort has been providing $6,000 in direct incentives, not to companies but to individual employees themselves, in an effort to lure at-home workers to relocate to Muncie.

The push has garnered 30 at-home workers who have committed to live here for two years. Along with their families the program has brought about 55 new residents to Muncie. The city administration says another 25 to 30 have committed to move to Muncie. Eighteen other Hoosier towns, including Lafayette and Richmond, are also using the Indianapolis firm MakeMyMove to recruit a workforce that arrives well educated and already earning, on average, $116,000 annually.

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The city has been offering each family $5,000 for moving for relocating. Ball State University, partnering with the city, provides amenities such as a recreation and fitness passes at university facilities, discounted ticket fees for BSU athletic events and other perks to further incentivize life in Muncie.

New arrivals also receive co-working space courtesy of The Innovation Connector. The whole package is valued by the city at $6,000.

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The administration also works with each recruited family to help on individual needs and wants, such as helping to find work for spouses and making sure each household is welcomed and aware of what Muncie offers of particular interest to the families. City Communication Director Michele Owen works with would-be new arrivals to build relationships.

"The state is matching us dollar for dollar," Ridenour said of the program.

The administration pledged $250,000 in economic development income tax funds at the start of effort about a year ago. Considering the goal was to bring 45 people to Muncie across five years, a commitment from 30 after just one year is a strong showing.

MakeMyMove co-founder Evan Hock called Muncie "one of the success stories."

He said the mid-sized cities of Indiana that have been at the front of the line in his company's growth with 124 households relocating in Indiana, placing 306 men, women and children in their new Hoosier communities.

Hock said economists at Indiana University estimated that, given the salaries of at-home workers and their families, each household will deliver an $80,000 a year economic impact in their new communities.

College towns ideal for promoting remote working

Greater Lafayette, which includes West Lafayette, has the largest MakeMyMove program in the state with 32 households relocating so far year, said Hock. The home of Purdue University has been offering $9,000 worth of incentives, including free food and drink on campus, a free city bus pass, free Chamber of Commerce membership and a $200 discount in continued education for new recruits. That is on top of the $5,000 offer for relocation expenses.

Richmond, home to Earlham College and Indiana University East, is a new participant in the program but has had 300 applicants and one mover so far, Hock said.

Being a college town is a big plus in attracting at-home workers looking for place to locate that offers varied cultural opportunities, Hock said.

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Ridenour said Ball State was a big selling point in Muncie's effort, and Hock said Bloomington, home to Indiana University, is another Hoosier city capitalizing on the program.

Hock said the matching dollars made available by the state through the Indiana Economic Development Corp. has helped popularize MakeMyMove across Indiana but the company operates across the nation.

Bigger cities are running bigger program to attract at-home workers, such as Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is landing 1,500 households per year at this point. Other client towns for MakeMyMove Charleston, West Virginia, Farmington, New Mexico, Louisville, Kentucky and Ketchikan, Alaska.

Hock said Noblesville has joined the ranks of clients and he thinks Indianapolis itself will probably develop something similar soon. But he stresses that towns of about any size, can make the program work.

Ridenour said a big local need in Muncie is providing housing for the would be new residents, not just from this program but for new manufacturers starting up in the city this year. The administration's effort to produce new market rate housing continues. Recent announcements have included a $55 million, 276-unit apartment community, at Tillotson Avenue and Memorial Drive on the city's south side as well as ongoing work to create Storer Estates, a single family housing development at the site of the former Storer Elementary School.

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But Muncie isn't alone in desiring new housing.

"That's an issue in a lot of places," Hock said.

Effort started to help Indiana grow

The top management of MakeMyMove is made up of some of the former top management of Angie's List (now called Angi's after the Indianapolis business service rating enterprise was sold in 2017). Hock, Angie's list co-founder Bill Oesterle, and Mike Rutz, CEO at MakeMyMove, started the effort with the intention of helping Indiana grow.

After Angie's list sold, Hock said, "we knew we wanted to do something to help the state of Indiana. And we knew we still wanted to work together."

About that time, the pandemic came along and pushed many people to start working from their home. Some never went back to the office. Many employees were freed to work where they pleased. MakeMyMove, initially called TMap, created a website to bring at-home workers together with communities willing to offer incentives to attract them.

Hock said the at-home workers who participate tend to fall into two categories: People in their late-twenties to mid-thirties, whose careers are starting to take off and those late in their careers, whose children might have left for college and they feel more freedom to move.

In many larger cities and places on the coasts, the cost of living is pricing at-home workers out of the market, he said. The affordability of Indiana is a major attraction.

The Hoosier state is getting a lot of people out of Chicago, Hock said. While others are fleeing the West Coast.

But the reasons for the final decisions vary.

"It has become a very personal decision," Hock said.

And Ridenour said the cash offer for moving isn't the biggest factor.

Just as with economic developers and major employers who might deliver a factory to a city, it's often the relationships established that make the difference in a final decision to make a certain place home.

"People want to move to places where they are wanted," Hock said.

Where a person chooses to settle is more than business. In Greensburg, another Indiana client of MakeMyMove, the executive director of the Decatur County Community, Tami Wenning, offered herself as a "grandparent on demand" − a stand-in family member and babysitter to recruit a family, Hock said.

Ridenour said it's important not only that potential residents get to know Muncie but that the city develop relations with the applicants for the program.

"We want it to be a good fit," he said.

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This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Muncie, Lafayette recruiting at-home workers one family at a time