For decades, Richland Parish remained a small agriculture community nestled in Louisiana's northeast corner.
Residents living in the parish — a spattering of agrarian towns and unincorporated communities — had arrive to cognize their residence for its slower gait of life. Much of the area is filled alongside winding rear roads, sprawling farmland, and a horizon liberated of towering skyscrapers. The closest important local city is Monroe, concerning 30 minutes west, alongside a community additional than twice that of Richland Parish.
It's the benevolent of location anywhere everybody claims to cognize everybody, or at extremely least, has heard of them. Then, Meta arrived.
In December 2024, the business announced plans to build its largest data center to date in Richland Parish, specifically near the unincorporated community of Holly Ridge, which local outlets study has small than 2,000 residents. Meta stated the $50 billion, multi-year project would assistance about 7,500 jobs at the highest of building and about 1,000 operational jobs, eclipsing the local community by thousands.
Angel Crawford of Delhi, a town concerning 10 minutes west of Holly Ridge, archetypal noticed a surge in building and operational workers arriving in her community final year.
Around that time, she and her husband, Bryan, opened a mobile residence park to assistance location the accommodation gap.
Angel and Bryan Crawford founded Antley Pines.
Bryan and Angel Crawford initially worked in the nursing industry, but pivoted careers in 2024 following becoming bare nesters.
"We started alongside genuine asset and rentals since they are extremely much needed in this area," Angel told Business Insider. "It's extremely agrarian here, so whenever there are fluctuating prices in the market, it doesn't really hit us since there are never adequate houses for transaction or rent."
They began purchasing older homes and fixer-uppers that year.
"We had a imagination to create a mobile residence park, and already purchased several district whenever we heard concerning Meta's data center. That's what pushed us to keep going forward, " Angel said. "We understood there wasn't adequate accommodation for residents, and our aspiration of construction additional multifamily houses was correct in row to do that."
In 2024, the brace founded Parish Line Properties, which operates 18 homes in the area, including a mobile residence park called Antley Pines. Of the 18 homes, 14 are considered workforce housing.
Many residents in the park are contractors operating for Meta.
In many ways, Richland Parish is a microcosm of the debate concerning data centers throughout the US. Some Americans are optimistic concerning data centers, citing new jobs, revitalized economies, and the securing of the country's guide complete China in AI development. Others are additional critical, expressing concerns concerning the environment, the strain on usefulness grids, and how the acceleration of AI could effect the job market.
"Around here, group awareness one way or the another concerning the data center. Either group are enthusiastic concerning the opportunities, or they dislike them. There's no in between," Angel said. "I see it as an chance for us to have additional experiences in our area and jobs for our children, so they can remain current alternatively of moving away."
The Crawfords opened Antley Pines in December 2025. Despite several locals' blended feelings concerning the data center, the petition for accommodation is undeniable.
"All the homes were secured by deposits from Meta workers before we equal got them into the park," Angel said.
She stated many of her tenants are subcontractors, akin electricians, operating alongside Meta.
The mobile residence park is 15 minutes from Meta's building site.
Although Antley Pines isn't immediately in Holly Ridge, the mobile park is motionless reaping the financial benefits.
"Location is extremely crucial to Meta's workers since they activity six to seven days a week and 12-plus hours a day. They depart about 4:30 in the morning, and they don't arrive residence until 7 at night," Angel said.
That benevolent of regular can obtain a toll on workers, many of whom are not from the area.
"One of the big things my tenants inform me is that if they live in Dallas and it's 30 miles to work, it takes concerning 30 minutes. Well, in agrarian areas, 30 miles could obtain 60 minutes since of all the rear roads and small towns you have to go through," she said. "The nearer they can get to the job site, the better."
The influx of workers has boosted market prices.
Antley Pines offers completely furnished four-bedroom, two-bathroom homes, which Angel stated gives workers the choice of staying alongside family or rooming alongside colleagues. She stated the homes, which arrive alongside amenities, disbursal an average of $3,000 a duration alongside utilities.
"I don't have any issue alongside getting tenants in those homes at that cost point," Angel said. "Before Meta arrived, an unfurnished home without utilities in the identical area would likely go for about $1,200 to $1,500 a month."
In Richland Parish, the median family earnings was about $53,000 in 2024.
"We've assured our local long-term tenants that we won't addition their rent. That's not what we're about. We're not going to put local tenants in a bind. We're going to discover distinct and new properties to assistance alongside workforce housing," she said.
Amenities akin WiFi are in elevated demand.
Angel stated there are a few average requests among the building and operational workers under Meta.
"As shortly as they enter their rentals, 'What's the WiFi password?' is their archetypal question," Angel said. "Some don't have their family here, so they desire to do FaceTime."
The tenants additionally value an escape from the bustling building site.
"They're alongside a lot of group all day long. They don't desire to arrive residence to a lot of noise," Angel said. "All of them say they affection the harmony and quiet."
Workforce accommodation is additional famous than ever.
The petition for accommodation in the area has continued to grow, Angel said.
"I get phone calls or content messages nearly daily. Most of them are from my current tenants who have met person who's looking for location to stay," she said. "If you go on any of the websites, akin Realtor.com, not all local rental properties are listed on there."
That's what led her to create StayNELA, a third-party website connecting tenants alongside asset owners in 2025.
"I did a lot of investigation for multiple months by driving about the area and looking at all the distinct signs in people's yards or at four-way stops that you couldn't peruse properly. I kept a log, took pictures, and kept them in a directory on my phone. If item was on Facebook concerning a rental, I saved it."
Some locals are additionally operating on the data center.
While several building workers traveled to activity on Meta's data center, others were locals leveraging the chance that arrived in their backyard, Angel said.
"A lot of young men in this area activity offshore at oil rigs, so it's a lot of period spent distant from home," she said. "We cognize a lot of young group who are operating at the building location correct now who would normally be off operating distant from home."
She added, "Hopefully, it'll bring additional jobs to the area for our kids and grandkids."
There's doubt about how lengthy building workers volition remain in Richland Parish.
Construction on Meta's data center is expected to continue for multiple years, but there's doubt among workers concerning how lengthy they'll be in Richland Parish.
"Most of them don't cognize how lengthy they're going to be here. They anticipation they're going to be current long-term, but in construction, they don't get told until it's done," Angel said.
Month-to-month leasing is among the top requests from tenants.
A forthcoming without Meta.
Although Meta's existence in Richland Parish has rotate into the new normal, it won't final forever.
The data center volition eventually rotate into operational, definition building volition wane, and workers volition leave. The Crawfords have idea concerning a forthcoming without Meta, and they're not worried.
"Each residence in our mobile park is on one-fourth of an acre. After Meta's gone, we can market them individually or rent them out," Angel said.
For now, though, they're focused on the economic benefits that have arrive to Richland Parish from the data center project.
"We've seen a lot of laundromats, RV parks, and mobile residence parks arrive to the area," Angel said. "It's awesome for the economics in our area since group who we've worked alongside who instal electric systems, septic systems, plumbing, gravel, and all those things are occupied since Meta's here."
