Starke County Economic Development Foundation Researches Demand for New Housing in Hamlet

There may be a market for new housing in Hamlet. That’s according to Ron Gifford with the Starke County Economic Development Foundation. Last month, the Hamlet Town Council asked foundation officials to help start the process of bringing some residential development to the town.

As a first step, Gifford presented some population statistics to council members last week. “Hamlet, like every rural community in the entire State of Indiana, if not the country, is going downwards and not upwards, and you’ve had a modest drop,” he explained. “You only had a four-percent drop from the 2010 census to the 2016 figures, which are the latest we have.”

He also presented statistics comparing the number and age of the town’s homes in 2010 and 2016. “It’s clear, I think, from looking at those statistics and demographics that you probably do have a need for some additional newer housing,” Gifford said. “The question you would have, and I think if you’re doing this orderly, you’d probably first of all, identify a site or two that you might want to try to get a developer to look at, and number two, then, start developing costs of what it might run to run the infrastructure to those areas, if you don’t already have it there.”

Gifford also warned council members that any potential developer would probably expect some “skin in the game” from the town.