Wyoming Game and Fish builds employee housing south of Jackson

JACKSON, Wyoming (KIFI) - Future employees of Wyoming Game and Fish who come to work in the Jackson region will have new affordable housing waiting for them.

"As most people know the cost of living in Jackson is high. It's a very expensive place to live, and it's really been a problem for us in recruiting employees. And when we do get employees on retaining those employees," Wyoming Game and Fish Public Information Specialist Mark Gocke said.

Many of those new employees leave as soon as living in Teton County, Wyo. gets to be too much for them causing the department to consider a multitude of options.

"We actually considered moving the Jackson Office out of Jackson, based on the cost of living in the area back in 2019," Gocke said. But after listening to the community, who gave enormous support to keep the company there, decided against that idea.

But the problem of high cost of living remained.

"If you look at the housing in Jackson, just for a single family house, if you are going to rent and it's going to be $8,000 a month and up. Then if you are just going to rent an apartment in a small apartment, it's going to be $3,000, at least a month and up," Gocke said.

With all that in mind, the decision for the department became clear, build a new housing complex south of town for their employees. That complex is going to be built in the South Park Wildlife Management Area.

"We settled on a corner of that habitat area that gets very little use by wildlife. It's right next to the highway. So seemed it would have little impact on wildlife," Gocke said.

The project will include six single family homes and a multi occupant home for seasonal and temporary employees.

"This will be a project that'll take us through the winter. They're getting modular homes from northern Idaho, looking to bring those actually in this winter. And we'll use a crane to set them on one half at a time for each house on to the foundations and then looking to have this project done by early October next year and getting people moved in before winter," Gocke said.

Gocke says the department has high hopes for the complex will help keep the employees in the area.