The Meta data center in Louisiana is creating a housing boom

For decades, Richland Parish remained a small farming community nestled in Louisiana’s northeast corner.

Residents living in the parish — a spattering of rural towns and unincorporated communities — had come to know their home for its slower pace of life.

Much of the area is filled with winding back roads, sprawling farmland, and a skyline free of towering skyscrapers.

The closest major regional city is Monroe, about 30 minutes west, with a population more than twice that of Richland Parish.

It’s the kind of place where everybody claims to know everybody, or at very least, has heard of them.

Now Meta has arrived, and things are changing.

In December 2024, the company announced plans to build its largest data center to date in Richland Parish, specifically near the unincorporated community of Holly Ridge, which local outlets report has fewer than 2,000 residents.

Meta said the $50 billion, multi-year project would support around 7,500 jobs at the peak of construction and around 1,000 operational jobs, eclipsing the local community by thousands.

Angel Crawford of Delhi, a town about 10 minutes west of Holly Ridge, first noticed a surge in construction and operational workers arriving in her community last year.

Around that time, she and her husband, Bryan, opened a mobile home park to help address the housing gap.