Couch Surfing
Out on the snowy prairie near Pinedale, Samantha Marks gave a Zoom tour of the log barn she built herself last summer. There’s a sleeping loft, a wood stove and big views of the Wind River Range.
“My wonderful boyfriend is helping me move all of my stuff into the barn because, with the federal employee thing, I was living in federal housing. So don't have that much longer,” Marks said with a laugh.
Her boyfriend carted stuff in on his mountain bike because her driveway isn’t plowed. Outside the wide double barn doors, he piled up camping gear and pots and pans.
Marks got laid off as a probationary physical science technician from the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Now, she only has a few days left to get moved out of employee housing. Marks said there’s no way she can find an apartment in Pinedale – they go too fast. Plus, she said they cost around $2,000 a month. But she can’t move into this barn either. It isn’t heated or insulated.
“I'll just be couch surfing until we can get the camper here.”
Her plan is that when the snow melts, she’ll pull a friend’s camper out here and live in that until she can build a house.
Marks thought she was being smart when she bought this land. She waited until the Forest Service offered her a permanent position. It was her dream job.
“On paper, I did everything right,” Marks said. “I don't know if I would have made the same choice. I probably would have waited another year or two to pick this place. But now I'm also kind of glad that I did because I need some sort of stability in my life.”
Marks has decided to stay in Pinedale since she’s built a community here. This summer, though, she’ll have to hustle to find work and build a house.
“I’m pretty overwhelmed, honestly,” Marks said. “I lost my job, my housing and health insurance all in one day.”
Wyoming’s Affordable Housing Problem
These federal layoffs are hitting Wyoming in the middle of an affordable housing crisis. The state will be short as many as 38,000 homes by the end of this decade. And that much competition means that about 50,000 Wyomingites barely make enough to afford their rent or mortgage, according to a 2024 study by the Wyoming Community Development Authority.
“This is a hard statistic to even fathom, but it's real,” said Chris Volzke, the organization’s deputy executive director. “The median household income in Wyoming, which is a little over $70,000 a year, cannot afford the median priced house in every county in the state without being cost burdened.”
Cost burdened is when you have to pay more than a third of your income for your home. Volzke said their study shows that more Wyomingites are packing themselves into shared housing or even becoming unhoused.
“ The majority of homeless people in Wyoming are Wyomingites,” Volzke said. “It's primarily our neighbors and people in our community that had a series of events that forced them out of their rental into a car, into the street, whatever the scenario is.”
One of those scenarios could be getting fired from a federal agency.
Full-time RVing
Alan Willes and Teri Gilfilen are both in their 70s and live full-time in their RV. They talked on Zoom from their RV couch, their cat Petra curled up next to them.
“ We're at a RV resort in Camp Verde,” Willes said.
Each winter, they lead tours and man a visitor center at Palatki Heritage Site outside Sedona, Arizona. They get paid a stipend of $20 dollars a day. But because of the federal funding freeze, they haven’t gotten paid yet and the check is now two months late.
“If we could get [our stipend] without us costing an arm and a leg,” Willes said. They know hiring an attorney and fighting for the money in court is outside their budget. “It’d probably cost us $20,000 to go get $3,000. No, we can't do that. They got us over a barrel.”
Right now, they’re paying $1,500 dollars a month for a lot in an RV park.
“Our next plan is waiting for the weather to break and go back up to Jackson, Wyoming, if we don't freeze ourselves. And wait ‘til May, [which] is when the float trip season starts for me,” Willes said.
Every summer, Willes works as a shuttle driver for a rafting company. He’s worried the recent and expected future firings of National Park Service employees will hurt business.
“We're very nervous about that,” he said. “If the park service closes down, I don't know if we'd be closed down. I would think so.”
That would put their housing at risk, since the company lets them park in a pasture for free.
“Plan A, B, C, D. With today's accelerations that are happening, I don't think one plan cuts it,” said Gilfilen.
One of those plans is getting off the road and settling down in Wyoming.
“ Never in my life would I have thought I would be living in an RV in [my] 70s,” said Gilfilen. “Yeah, it just totally surprises me. But we do have an adventurous life.”
Wyoming Public Radio reached out to Coconino and Bridger-Teton national forests but both declined to comment. However, Coconino National Forest did send Willes and Gilfilen an email the same day Wyoming Public Radio reached out for comment. It said they could expect their money within the week. As of March 7, no check has arrived.
