'I can see us helping each other out if we need it and that it's going to be a community.'Ĭook is offering these homes to employees at below-market prices. As Jones visits, a construction crew is pouring concrete driveways.Īt first, she wasn't sure she wanted to see work colleagues on her off-hours. Two rows of clapboard ranch homes - 14 so far - now line a dirt road. In Spencer, Cook's brand-new subdivision, Pike Place, is taking shape in what used to be a wheat field. Jennifer Ludden/NPR The first 14 homes of a larger subdivision being built in Spencer, Ind., by Cook Group, the parent company of Cook Medical, will be ready for occupancy this summer. The trend underscores the scale of the country's affordable housing shortage and the ripple effects it has on the wider economy. Elon Musk is reportedly planning a new neighborhood in Texas for employees of his companies SpaceX, Tesla and Boring. They include big names like Disney and Meta, the meatpacker JBS and local school systems and health care providers. So a growing number of employers around the country have decided to build their own housing for workers, mostly for them to rent but sometimes to buy.

Record-high job openings and low unemployment have made the competition worse, fueling staff shortages. have skyrocketed, more companies are finding it harder to recruit and retain middle-income workers. 'This is as big as my room now,' she says.Ĭook's move isn't purely philanthropic.

She marvels at the Lazy Susan cabinet in the kitchen, the lush green view of the backyard and the size of the primary-bedroom closet. 'It's so beautiful!' she says, walking around to check out every detail. On a recent afternoon before her shift, she's bursting with excitement as she gets her first visit inside the nearly finished three-bedroom, two-bathroom ranch house. When Cook announced a year ago that it would build hundreds of homes to sell to employees at below-market prices, Jones was among the first to sign up.

But she hasn't been able to find a place she can afford on her own, so at age 47, she's squeezed in with her sister's family. Tommie Jones loves her job as a quality control inspector for Cook Medical in rural Spencer, Indiana.

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