The first national park in the US will soon have more affordable housing thanks to a $40 million donation from anonymous donors.
The National Park Foundation and the National Park Service announced the donation Tuesday, saying it will fund more than 70 new modular units for NPS employees at Yellowstone National Park, the Billings Gazette reports.
"Affordable housing for employees in and near national parks is increasingly scarce and expensive, reflecting a trend impacting communities across the country, forcing park employees to commute long distances between work and home and making it difficult for NPS to recruit and retain employees," NPS Director Chuck Sams says in a statement.
A National Park Foundation assessment of housing needs at three other national parks, Acadia, Yosemite, and Grand Teton, found that those parks require more than $115 million in funding to add more than 200 new employee housing units.
The donation "will meet a critical need for new housing in Yellowstone, and be a catalyst for more philanthropic investment," says Will Shafroth, president of the National Park Foundation.
The housing project is expected to be completed in 2024.
NPS employs 20,000 people who support operations at 429 parks located in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and USTerritories.
There are more than 5,600 housing facilities in more than 200 parks, ranging from 100-
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