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W O R K F O R M E / S P R I N G 2 0 2 4 24 in western Maine for a comfy one with plenty of space and an eight-acre parcel with stone walls and lots of trees. With an affordable rent, she doesn't stress about her finances. If she had rented an area apart- ment at market rates, she won- ders if she would have ended up having to choose between paying an electric bill or buying food because so much of her paycheck would have gone to rent. "Moving here has made it so it's affordable to live," she says while seated at a table in the din- ing area of the house, located on a country road in Cumberland. "You can eat and do the things we normally would before COVID and inflation happened." Benefits plus For OceanView, affordable hous- ing is one additional benefit it can offer to draw and keep employees in a tight labor market. The com- pany offers other benefits such as generous health care cover- age, a 401(k) that matches up to $4,000 a year, five weeks of paid vacation for new hires, and perks such as the opportunity to stay at the company's timeshare at the Sunday River resort in Newry or its lakeside house in Rangeley. Linda Rowe, lead certified residential medication aid, left, and Cristy Williams, HR manager, who works with employees on housing and a range of benefits, at the Maine Lodge at Ocean View at Falmouth. P H O T O / T I M G R E E N W A Y H e a lt h C a r e In a recruiting bid, retirement community offers workers housing at below-market rates D ay in and day out, Lin- da Rowe drove nearly an hour-and-a-half from home to work — and then from work to home at the end of each shift. Over and over it went for two years. Now, her commute takes all of eight minutes. Thanks to her employer, OceanView at Falmouth retire- ment community, Rowe lives in a comfortable four-bedroom home close to work at below-market rates. With the overheated hous- ing market becoming an obstacle to attracting and retaining em- ployees, OceanView bought a single-family house last year and rents it out to up to four employees at an affordable price. Rowe no longer has to make the tedious drive from West Paris to Falmouth every day. She also swapped a run-down rental house B Y C L A R K E C A N F I E L D There are people who would love to work and live in this area, but they can't afford to. Our goal was if we can offer housing, we might get the person from Bangor or farther away who wants to move to the southern part of the state. — Cristy Williams OceanView HR department