These should be good times for Norton County. It’s got four companies ready to invest $6 million in expansions, adding about three dozen jobs. Plus, area businesses have posted another 185 job openings. All welcome news in this northwest Kansas county with a population of 5,459. But there’s a catch. The county has so few homes available that it’s not only struggling to attract employees to fill existing openings, but fighting to meet the demands of new development. It’s a problem facing all parts of the state especially western Kansas, which has prompted a broad coalition of business and government interests to ask the Legislature for a one-time $50 million appropriation to help solve a rural housing shortage.
Source: Sunflower State Journal
