Editor’s note: The USDA Forest Service announced a temporary housing refund that will benefit approximately 4,500-5,500 employees in Forest Service housing. This article takes a look at the challenges some employees face finding housing and how it affects agency staffing and retention and services to the public.
 

The Forest Service has some of the most remote working locations of any federal agency. Whether it’s firefighters responding to wildfires, recreation managers ensuring campgrounds are ready for visitors, or wildlife biologists deep in the woods monitoring sensitive species, the remoteness is part of the draw for these types of jobs, but it’s also part of the challenge.

For many of these outdoor professionals, their duty station is sometimes located one to three hours from the nearest mid-sized town. And often just as far away from the nearest available apartment or house.

That’s one reason why the Forest Service and other federal agencies offer government housing to employees. There is value in having employees reside in facilities near their work locations, to respond to after-hour emergencies, safer commutes and better work life balance.

Providing this housing option to Forest Service employees in 37 states on 106 forests is no easy task. And the challenges associated with housing varies widely by location.

That’s why the agency hired a National Housing Project Manager and assembled an Integrated Project Team to identify a diverse set of options to help address housing challenges and better serve today’s workforce.

Shimiki Ross, the National Housing Project Manager, has been working with engineers, quarters experts, and contract staff to review the data. She’s reading through employee survey responses, meeting with tenants, and visiting locations to better understand the complex and multifaceted challenges.

“I’m really just trying to digest all the data,” said Ross. “What are we dealing with? And how do we come up with a plan to address it? The core factors and issues that make up our housing challenges are availability, affordability, and the condition of Forest Service housing.”

It’s important to understand which employees are most affected by these challenges, Ross said. “Last year nationally, we had about 5,800 employees living in Forest Service housing. Generally, the majority of employees that live in Forest Service housing have a base pay ranging between $27K (GS-2) and $46K (GS-8) before locality adjustments. About 1,700 of them were grade GS-4, the largest group of our employees in housing.”

The average forestry technician is paid at a general schedule (GS) 4 rate. This means their pay starts at nearly $2,600 per month, set by legislation and the Office of Personnel Management. An accepted standard for housing cost is that an individual should not contribute more than 30% of their gross monthly income toward rent. So, the average forestry technician should spend no more than $870 per month on mortgage or rent.

“The situation in some western regions is made worse by the higher cost of living in popular tourist areas,” said Ross.

Housing around national forests in the Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada Mountains, and Cascade Mountains – where forestry technicians, firefighters, wildlife biologists, and other public servants are essential – is in low supply and high demand. Where housing is available, it can cost much more than the average Forest Service public servant can afford.

“There's definitely an affordability issue and situations where we do not have enough housing for our employees, when there's limited availability, where they're forced into the private market where they may not be able to afford housing.”

This leaves them three options: request government housing if available, get creative, or quit. None of which are great.

Living like college students

Some forests utilize administrative buildings or existing single-family homes for barracks- style bunkhouses, providing a roof, shared kitchen, bathrooms, and a common area for workers to live when they’re not working.

Of course, many employees working on some forests must make a choice about living conditions or not be employed by the Forest Service. So, they pack in two to a bedroom, four to a bathroom, twelve to twenty to a kitchen.

This living situation is common for young adults like college students and recent high school graduates. But it’s meant to be temporary – until they complete their training, build experience, and move on to higher paying work that enables them to get a space of their own.

Most of us would recognize that over a person’s life their needs and wants change. As careers develop, people find their niche and lifestyle. All need time to recharge and find balance. In high-housing cost areas, there is limited or no affordable single person or single-family dwellings into which employees can move.

Instead, even after training, certification, experience, and promotions, these employees may promote to the GS-6 pay scale, which provides nearly $3,200 per month. These workers would normally be able to afford housing at just over $1,000 per month. But even studio apartments in high-tourism areas like Jackson Hole, Wyoming, run $2,500 per month and up.

A single employee would need to make over $90,000 per year to afford their own studio apartment there. Typically, only District Rangers (GS-13) and Forest Supervisors (GS-14) receive that level of pay, which takes an entire career to reach.

The remainder of the employees are almost exclusively reliant on government-provided housing. In areas where single-family homes are in short supply or non-existent, employees face the decision or continuing to live in shared-room, barracks-style or leaving their job to work elsewhere. Without these mid-level GS-4 to GS-12 employees, the districts and forests simply cannot accomplish their mission.

Mountain of maintenance

Another issue the agency is working to address is the overall condition of government housing, most of which was built between 60 and 70 years ago. The rents collected from tenants are reinvested into these living quarters to cover maintenance, operating expenses, outstanding work orders and sometimes utilities.

But as time has gone on, funding has not kept pace with the increase in materials and labor costs. And a shrinking in-house maintenance staff has also contributed to the cost.

In fiscal year 2024, the nationwide deferred maintenance backlog for Forest Service owned housing was estimated at about $443 million. This is on top of the needed annual maintenance and operating costs of about $55 million a year.

“There's a variety of issues that as an agency, we know we have to address. Our top leadership has been to these units and has slept in them. They know what our employees are dealing with and are working to address these issues,” said Ross.

Imagine living in a 22-person bunkhouse year-round with all of your coworkers – even your supervisor. For all of you, there are eleven bedrooms, three bathrooms, and three washers and dryers. Now imagine that a couple of the appliances are out of order, the toilet in one of the bathrooms doesn’t work, and there’s a leak in the roof. And the landlord has so many competing maintenance requirements that the total need outstrips available resources. How would that make you feel? What would you do?

Despite the deferred maintenance backlog, employees living in agency housing saw an annual rental rate increase in March as directed by Circular A-45, federal guidance on rental rates and other charges for government rental housing. Shortly thereafter, to support affected employees, Secretary Vilsack and Under Secretary Wilkes announced a temporary housing refund. This refund covers up to half the rent for the majority of Forest Service employees in government-owned housing. Although the refund will help up to 5,000 Forest Service employees, it is expected to last less than one year because the authority to fund it relies upon specific emergency conditions and is temporary while emergency conditions last.

The resulting poor living conditions can also further stress housing availability. If these facilities are found to be substandard due to issues like non-potable water, mold, asbestos, or insect or rodent infestation, tenants are forced to find alternative housing.

Doing the best we can with what we have

The Forest Service is using the limited resources it has to help workers access affordable housing in these challenging locations so the work of forest management can go on. But most of the ready solutions available to other employers in these areas, such as higher pay or housing stipends, are unavailable to the land management agency.

• Pay your employees more? The base and locality pay rates are set by law. For example, the Bridger-Teton and Caribou-Targhee national forests in Wyoming and Idaho, are in the “rest of the U.S.” locality pay bracket, which is the lowest even though the housing there is some of the most expensive in the country.

• Build more housing? We’re working on that, and we are building what we can, such as converting administrative sites and buildings to housing. However, the housing need is far greater than the resources we have. And once these new housing options are built – they need to be maintained. In addition, the monthly rental rate will vary based on the location and type of housing unit (dormitory, single family home, trailer pad).

• Give your employees a housing stipend? This is prohibited by law.

• Explore partnerships with local municipalities, and industry partners to provide workforce housing? This is a complex process, and in some cases the development of high-density units is restricted in high tourism areas.

Impact

The agency is doing the best it can to help these critical public servants keep a roof over their heads in some of the most beautiful – and expensive – locations in the country.

Although some temporary relief measures have been provided by the President and Congress, there still is not enough funding to cover the $8.6 billion in deferred maintenance across the Forest Service, of which housing deferred maintenance is a part. For example, the Great American Outdoors Act – Legacy Restoration Funding for the Forest Service was $285 million per year since 2020 and expires in 2025. Permanent updates to funding, pay, benefits, and/or laws are still desperately needed to sustainably manage the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation's forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations.

We are getting closer and closer to the point where employees can’t live and work in these places. Shelter is critical to work readiness and being reduced to living out of their cars or in insufficiently maintained government housing because of prohibitive cost or lack of availability is not humane or sustainable.

Over the past year, the Forest Service has seen an unprecedented number of job offers declined. The most common reasons job applicants have given the agency for declining job offers are low pay, lack of housing affordability and availability, and work schedules. To have a workforce ready to deliver the mission, they need housing to do their work, which is less and less possible each year near many national forests.

The issue of available and affordable housing is bigger than the Forest Service alone and will require a whole-of-government solution in collaboration with municipalities and partners. We’re continuing to work together towards enduring solutions.