By Jodi Magallanes, Truth Staff
jmagallanes@etruth.com
It was inevitable. People are heading to where the jobs are.
Indicators are emerging that residents are trickling out of employment-challenged Elkhart County. It's a scenario that makes County Commissioner Frank Lucchese nervous.
"You worry about the brain drain. We don't want to lose those people," Lucchese said. Yet, he acknowledges, people have to do what's necessary to support themselves and their families.
Old Farm Apartments manager Scott Burns said that what he's seen is blue-collar workers and Hispanics leaving the area. The apartment complex has a 20 percent vacancy, about 15 percent higher than normal.
"It comes down to survival," Burns said. "What we're seeing is families doubling up, moving in with family or moving back to where family is."
More applicants for apartments are listing unemployment as their main source of income, Burns added. He's bracing for another round of move-outs when unemployment benefits begin to run out.
He's called around to other complexes, and his complex's situation seems to be common.
"It's a pretty high indicator that things aren't going well," he said. Apartment managers are fighting to survive by, among other tactics, decreasing security deposits or offering move-in specials.
While the recession hit workers in the recreational vehicle industry first, the ripple effect is touching everyone -- including professionals.
Lucchese has a white-collar friend whose family is headed out of town because his new job is in Michigan. Lucchese has also heard from contractors -- electricians, builders and the like -- who are moving on because of the lack of construction work in Elkhart County.
"It's too bad. I wish it were different. They wish it were different," Lucchese said. "But when you've got a family to support, you have to go where the jobs are."
However, he believes many more residents are holding out for an economic recovery.
"They're staying put and hoping things will improve. And it will improve," Lucchese said.
He said Elkhart County commissioners are working with the Economic Development Corp. to make Elkhart County as attractive as possible for new employers, especially small businesses. And due to the national attention Elkhart has received, the EDC is getting calls of interest, he added.
Elkhart County is ranked No. 1 in the Midwest for having a good, business-friendly environment, according to information gathered by the Indiana Economic Development Corp. for a Cost of Doing Business Comparison published last fall. So theoretically, we should be high on the list of communities that will first feel the effects of an economic recovery.
But in the meantime, area school systems reflect outward movement. Elkhart and Goshen have both seen a drop in the number of kids enrolled.
Goshen Community Schools has lost about 200 students, compared to the usual 40 or so for spring. Most of the former students attended the middle school and high school.
"Our Hispanic community might have a little higher propensity to move out for economic reasons, but really, I would not say it's just them," said Superintendent Bruce Stahly. As of the end of March the percentage of Hispanic students in Goshen had dropped about 1 percent, consistent with their percentage of representation in GCS student population.
Elkhart has seen a drop of 331 since the beginning of the school year through the end of March, with 65 of those being English as a second language students -- also in direct proportion to that group's percentage of the student population.