Apartments and houses for rent are difficult to come by locally, though opinions as to the extent of the problem vary.
Jeanne Albanese, a broker with Bayshore Realty in South Bend, recently told the Herald she sees a number of people come in to her office to whom she's unable to provide assistance.
"I have to say sorry," she said, adding, "I'm worried about people."
She says she's seen several local professionals lately who've struggled to find suitable accommodation. The problem is not just with apartments, she said. Instead it extends to houses, though many stand apparently empty.
"A lot of people do comment on the number of empty houses in our area," stated Albanese, explaining there are a handful of such empty homes around her personal residence alone.
"There's a multitude of reasons," she continued. "Maybe they need some repairs. Maybe the owners have not got around to making repairs. Some might be afraid of actually dealing with renters or afraid a renter will damage the property. There's many different reasons why there might be empty houses."
Albanese didn't necessarily agree with the Herald's assertion that some might be absentee property owners who live elsewhere. She stated that perhaps some owners haven't even considered putting their property up for rent.
"Maybe some haven't really thought about it seriously," Albanese speculated, "people who may have a place over a garage or a guest house or an actual house that they could fix up or could rent that might not even need fixing up."
"It's really an issue in our area right now," she added of the lack of rentals.
Albanese wasn't certain to what degree the rapid growth of the marijuana industry has affected area housing. Of the six rental units with which she's personally involved, none of the tenants work in that industry but instead are employed as teachers, hospital workers, or in the shellfish industry, she said.
As for the prospect of homeowners potentially taking advantage of the situation by letting out individual rooms for rent, Albanese said she wasn't aware of much of that occurring and doesn't think it's a popular thing to do locally.
According to Albanese, Facebook is the online venue where she sees most of what's available in terms of local rental properties posted.
As for the owners of empty houses, she stated, "Maybe they'll take a second look now that they know it's really an issue."
Heidi Keller, designated broker and owner of Harbor Realty, also of South Bend, didn't seem to think the lack of housing was exceptionally acute but also acknowledged it as an issue. She said she's had a few people come in searching for rentals that aren't available - at least not yet.
"In our area I would say we've always had a very strong rental market," Keller explained. "... We do have quite a few people who are coming in that still are looking for rentals, and we may not have some available, but there are rentals in the area that are being worked on that are getting up and running. We've had a few investors purchase some different properties that they're fixing up for rental. They're just not quite completed yet."
Keller stated that the lack of availability of suitable rentals may have to do with rental costs as well. She said she doesn't think the influx of people attracted by the marijuana industry has altered the rental landscape much, though it may have helped fill up a couple of newer developments.
"Right before the marijuana industry came in we also had two large multifamily dwellings that were built in the area as well, so [those] took in a lot of tenancies," she explained.
Keller continued, saying that though the advent of that industry has probably caused available rentals to be snatched up sooner than they might be otherwise, the local area has always, in her estimation, never had more than a handful of available units at any one time.
"We manage a lot of residential single family dwellings, and I think they're just a little easier to always continually rent out versus the apartments," Keller said of her own business.
Keller attributed the relative ease of renting houses versus apartments to a preference on the part of most people for having their own home.
A third local real estate agency, Davis Insurance and Real Estate, told the Herald that they don't deal at all in property management, instead focusing exclusively on home sales.
Contacted for comment, a representative of the Weyerhaeuser mill in Raymond, one of the area's largest single employers with about 165 people locally, stated that most of their employees are already well-established in town or live within driving distance and so have no need to rent.
A couple of managers who don't intend to relocate have opted to live out of RVs the source further noted.
"We don't have a lot that are coming from out of town," the representative added of the mill's employees.
Speaking personally, the Weyerhaeuser representative noted that a friend had ended up purchasing a home in the area after struggling to find an adequate rental.
Calls made by the Herald last week to the management of several local apartment complexes asking for comment were not immediately returned.