A $40 million private donation will go toward building at least 70 new modular housing units for employees at Yellowstone National Park, the National Park Service announced recently.
Yellowstone National Park officials said work on the units would begin later this year and that the extra money will help speed up the process of constructing more employee housing at the nation’s oldest national park, which saw its second busiest season ever last year.
“The gift will be transformational in helping us continue improving employee housing across Yellowstone,” Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Cam Sholly said. “Our thanks to the donors for their generosity and commitment to meet the needs of park employees and to the Park Foundation for its leadership and continued partnership.”
Getting affordable housing for National Park Service employees close to where they work has been increasingly difficult, the park service said, as property values near many parks have increased and other homes have been turned into short term rentals. The National Park Service and National Parks Foundation said the $40 million for Yellowstone would go directly to new housing and that donors wanted to remain anonymous.
A 2023 report said home values in West Yellowstone and Gardiner were double the national average and that a quarter of park employees earn less than $51,000 a year, while half earned less than $64,000 annually.
In 2020, Yellowstone National Park announced it would spend tens of millions of dollars to replace five-dozen old trailers with modular cabins, improve 150 old housing units and historic homes, and add new housing.
The 2023 Yellowstone State of the Park report released last March said at the time, the park has spent $30 million last March said at the time, the park had spent $30 million on new modular housing units, were set to complete 66 of the new units by 2023, and said 15 other modular housing units to replace trailers would be finished by 2025.
The park shifted to building more modular homes instead of building on-site to save money – to the tune of $36 million since 2019, park officials said.
Source: The Daily Montanan
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