With this recent trend of working remotely in the tech business, a lot of towns in the midwest and south have offered incentives to lure educated people to their districts.

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A rural Louisiana town paid people to move there. Here's what happened.

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RUSTON — Earlier this week, 39-year-old Denham Springs resident Mary Bloch loaded up a U-Haul and headed north. She and her two children were bound for Ruston, a 22,000-resident college town along Interstate 20 in the gently rolling hills of north Louisiana about 65 miles east of Shreveport.

Bloch spent part of her youth in Ruston before chasing a radio career all over the United States, eventually landing in Livingston Parish, where she was responsible for a south Louisiana territory. But this year, Bloch got a new job, one that is fully remote.

She’s always longed to be back in north Louisiana. And Ruston wants her, too.

Fueled by the explosion in remote working, Ruston has joined a cohort of small cities and rural areas around the country offering incentives to lure new residents.

In Ruston’s case, the city government has awarded 25 grants worth $10,000 apiece to applicants who meet certain qualifications, including earning a certain income, working remotely and agreeing to stay for three years. Former students at Louisiana Tech University and Grambling State University, the area’s two institutions of higher learning, get preferential treatment.

Bloch, who attended Tech before embarking on her radio career, was notified last month that she had been awarded one of the grants.

“I was overjoyed,” Bloch said. “This is an answered prayer. ... I am thrilled to be able to move back and have a little bit of that financial burden eased.”

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Incentive programs, while growing in popularity, aren't the answer for every place, said Emily Wornell, an assistant professor of research at Ball State University’s Center for Local and State Policy who has studied them in other parts of the U.S.

It’s still too early to know which programs are going to be successful, she said. But early indicators are that towns that already have some things going for them — good education systems, decent job markets and cultural opportunities — are more likely to see success.

Being close to a bigger city is seen as a plus, Wornell said. Things such as walkability help add to the attractiveness, too.

“A lot of rural communities are looking to this incentive program like a golden ticket,” Wornell said. “For the vast majority of communities, this is not going to work.”

Ruston benefits by being a relatively small city with two major universities nearby. In addition to Louisiana Tech’s roughly 12,000 students, Grambling State University, with about 5,000 students, is just about six miles away in the city of Grambling, population 5,168. There are a number of businesses headquartered in the area, and Ruston's population has held steady, and even grown slightly, over the past 40 years.

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The program, called "Welcome to Ruston," takes applications in an online portal. The application is then scored by a committee, which includes representatives from both Louisiana Tech and Grambling. Applicants get points for community involvement, social media participation and whether they meet the income requirements.

Applicants need to have an individual income of at least $52,000 or a family income of $100,000. The applications are closed for now, but Walker would like to reopen the process for a new round of grants.

It seems to only work if the towns are in relatively close proximity to a larger city or have some kind of major cultural amenity to begin with. Ruston has Louisiana Tech, which is a huge help.