Housing costs attributed to local hiring challenges

Multiple organizations in Lincoln County have noticed trouble hiring new employees, an issue which they can attribute in part to sustained high housing costs.

Ericka Hartley spoke at the Libby City Council meeting on April 17 on behalf of the school board. She was there to address the lack of affordable housing in the Libby area and its effect on the school’s ability to hire new teachers.

According to an American Community Survey the gross rent from 2017 to 2021 was $719 in Lincoln County, but between 2017 and 2021 it increased by about 17%.

According to an Associated Press story in March 2023, rent growth has moderated since surging in 2021 and most of 2022. Demand has slowed amid rising competition from new apartment construction, which has put pressure on landlords to ease rent increases.

“I don't really know what I'm asking for, but I'm just trying to raise awareness,” Hartley said.

The school struggles to interest new teachers in the area because of a lack of affordable housing options Harley said.

“These new teachers that we’re interviewing are scheduling interviews and then looking for housing and canceling their interviews because they can't find anything affordable,” she said.

Without good teachers she warned that the school could suffer and that this could keep new people from moving into the community, she said.

“I don't know if there's anything you guys can do with ordinances or zoning or anything like that, but there's definitely a need from the school board side of things to be able to hire good high quality teachers,” Hartley said.

The Kootenai National Forest officials have noticed hiring challenges due to housing.

“We've definitely struggled trying to fill some of our positions because of housing,” Larona Rebo said. “In some of these small local communities like Libby and Troy there's not that much housing available.”

Temporary and permanent employment can be affected by the cost to rent or buy, Rebo said. The Forest Service tries to remedy this by offering limited government bunk houses, but often it’s not enough.

“They can only house a handful of employees so it's not enough to sustain our workforce and with the cost of living increasing it's tough for people to find a place to live,” Rebo said. "Many people just can't afford $1,000 to $1,200 monthly rent costs and it's hard to find something below that."

When temporary positions go unfilled it can affect the agency in a couple of ways, Rebo said. For our temporary positions, like summer seasonals, if the position goes unfilled they often sit empty, Rebo said.

Permanent positions won’t stay unfilled, but if the Forest Service isn’t able to fill them then they will postpone the hiring and try to fill the empty positions again down the road, Rebo said.

The permanent workforce usually ends up in some kind of temporary housing for three to six months while looking for something they can afford, said Cami Winslow, supervisor for public services for the Kootenai National Forest.

“We've identified housing as an issue for recruitment and retention, and it's been identified in the entire region,” Winslow said. “We're trying to get more funding to be able to build more temporary quarter facilities for the temporary and permanent workforce,” Winslow said.

The standard college student that works a temporary job in the summer may be more flexible and willing to live in a communal space, Winslow said. For families it can be harder and some people leave their family at home in order to move and work a temporary job, Winslow said.

In addition to housing challenges, there are a lot more remote positions after the COVID-19 pandemic, not just in the Forest Service but also in the private sector, Rebo said.

This means that it can be hard to attract applicants and while government jobs can offer security and benefits there's some positions that can't be completely remote, Rebo said.

In order to respond to these hiring challenges the Forest Service is trying to conduct outreach with the right people and colleges in order to find the right people to fill their job openings.

“We're just looking at not only submitting proposals but also requesting funding to build some bunkhouse space that's affordable,” Winslow said.