A story recently published by Sierra, the magazine of the Sierra Club, focuses on the housing challenges faced by the National Park Service, and Acadia National Park Superintendent Kevin Schneider shares some insight into the issue here on Mount Desert Island. As the story illustrates, the lack of affordable housing – especially for seasonal staff – is a critical issue for parks around the country.

“NPS-supplied units are aging and badly in need of repair. And NPS staff who look outside their parks for housing in gateway towns are finding that homes once available for rent are now being used as nightly vacation rentals,” the Sierra story notes. “A boom in remote work since the pandemic has further driven up the cost of housing near parks while limiting the overall availability of housing stock. The resulting housing crunch is making it more difficult for parks to recruit and retain the staff they need, warn park superintendents who manage sites across the United States.”

Acadia National Park Superintendent Kevin Schneider spoke about the issue on Mount Desert Island:

“Housing is critical for us to be able to offer to our employees at Acadia National Park. We want to hire about 150 to 175 summer seasonals, and we only have about 85 beds in our housing inventory,” Schneider told Sierra writer Molly McCluskey. “The nature of the rental market here, for a six-month lease, there is no rental market, especially in the summer season.” This is in addition to Acadia’s approximately 100 year-round employees, who have also struggled to find affordable housing within a commuting distance to the park, the story notes.

“The best way to address the situation, park superintendents and conservation organizations agree, is for Congress to increase the funding for park ranger housing.”

Read the full story from Sierra Magazine: A Housing Crisis Is Impacting the National Park Service

Friends of Acadia is working toward solutions
Read about Friends of Acadia’s work to provide seasonal workforce housing at Acadia National Park