Anonymous donors give $40 million for Yellowstone National Park’s staff housing

A gift of $40 million from unnamed donors will let Yellowstone National Park improve housing for staff.

Affordable housing in and near national parks is scarce and expensive. The donor money, given through the National Park Foundation, will help to add more than 70 modular housing units to Yellowstone, which is largely in northwest Wyoming.

Work on building the units is expected to start this year, park officials announced last week.

“This transformational gift will meet a critical need for new housing in Yellowstone and be a catalyst for more philanthropic investment. These skilled, dedicated professionals … deserve housing they can be proud to call home,” Will Shafroth, CEO of the NPF, said in a statement.

More than 15,600 people, including 2,800 permanent National Park Service employees and 5,000 seasonal employees, rely on housing in and around national parks, the NPS said.

At the peak of tourist season, Yellowstone has around 3,000 employees. Housing issues have made filling positions more difficult.

“I can count at least five critical positions where we’ve tried to recruit, but we got turned down by the applicant because of a lack of housing,” Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Cam Sholly told National Public Radio.

Housing is hard to find, the NPS said, because of rising property values near national parks and increasing vacation rental demand from visitors.

“The housing challenges facing each park are unique, and so are the solutions. … I am incredibly grateful to the donors to the National Park Foundation, whose tremendous generosity will help NPS address this critical need,” the service’s director, Chuck Sams, said in a statement.