MONROE — As Monroe employers scramble to hire employees in the post COVID-19 economy, a lack of affordable housing is making it harder to recruit and retain a stable workforce.

“If you are going to work here, you are going to need a place to live,” said Donna Douglas, a longtime city council member and mayoral candidate who has worked for years on planning issues at the county and municipal levels. 

She says the lack of apartments and rental housing was an issue here before the pandemic but it has only gotten worse since. Indeed, a recent published study in The New York Times showed year-over-year rents have increased nearly 30 percent in some of the nation’s urban areas — a previously unthinkable jump in a year’s time.

While he doesn’t think it has increased by quite that much locally, Ryan Ziltner, of Exit Professional Real Estate in Monroe, says the hikes here have still been substantial, especially given that the city’s housing stock had very few apartments and rental homes to begin with.

“More and more people are calling trying to find rentals,” Ziltner says. “There just aren’t many of them out there at this point.”

Given that jobs are plentiful, Ziltner says it would not be uncommon for someone to work here and rent elsewhere, say in Verona, or south of the state line. But if commuting becomes too much of a burden — and gas prices are still rising — those employees may decide to give up and work elsewhere.

“That’s not good for our economy,” he said. “We need to keep those workers here.”

Though statistics vary, the average price of a two-bedroom apartment in the Monroe area was at about $850 month in 2021, the most recent statistics available according to RentData.Org. A one bedroom will set a renter back $550; while a three-bedroom apartment, would go for just over $1,000 per month. Four-bedroom units and houses, if they can be found, can top the $1,400 per month range.

Douglas said that amid the soaring real-estate market, the city should make affordable housing in general a priority, though experts say it’s tough to spark construction of multi-unit and affordable housing through public policy. Douglas points to the city’s recent approval of a senior living complex in Monroe as a positive step in that direction. In addition, she said, municipalities can create Tax Increment Financing Districts, or TIFs, to spark development but those solutions tend to be long term.

But Ziltner said the issue goes beyond just a lack of affordable apartments to the red-hot real-estate market in general. Less housing available overall means far fewer units that eventually go on the rental market. 

“They are going as fast as they can list them,” said Douglas, of single-family homes in Monroe.

Ziltner says municipalities like Monroe could do more to encourage creation of affordable housing including in the areas of zoning. And that’s something both agree officials should work to address, though they also acknowledge that the problem is a testament to the quality-of-life Monroe offers to someone trying to escape the big city without giving up quality of life.

“We should be proud of the amenities and the place where we live,” said Douglas. “But if we don’t have adequate housing we can’t continue to grow.”