Friends of Acadia Prioritizes Housing
The shortage of workforce housing is a critical issue facing many national parks and their park partners. While visitors take in the beautiful views and enjoy all that our parks have to offer, most don’t realize that housing—or the lack thereof—can have a profound impact on their overall park experience, affecting everything from trail access and educational programs to building maintenance and road closures. Many gateway communities struggle with limited housing availability, compounded by sky-rocketing real-estate prices and high demand during peak seasons.
To address severe housing shortages, park partners are finding increasingly resourceful solutions to expanding housing options, working with NPS and local community leaders to increase seasonal capacity without negatively impacting the availability of year-round housing. Friends of Acadia (FOA) has seen the impact housing can have on its own staff first-hand. Every summer, FOA hires approximately 15 seasonal employees who support the park and Friends of Acadia programs. to support the increased visitation. This is in addition to the nearly 175 seasonal employees hired by NPS and hundreds more hired by local businesses in the area every year. Without affordable housing options, more and more of these jobs go unfilled, putting additional pressure on full-time staff and negatively impacting park operations.
FOA has been a leader when it comes to addressing the housing shortage [SB1] for many years and works collaboratively with NPS leadership to find practical and mutually beneficial solutions. In 2022, Director Sams visited Acadia and spent time with FOA board members to discuss the dire need for more housing throughout the park system. FOA board leadership has made housing a central issue, “The Friends of Acadia board realizes that it is absolutely essential to our ability to help preserve and protect Acadia going forward,” says board member Dave Edson, who chairs the housing committee. “We believe it’s critical for Friends of Acadia to play an active role in both short and long-term solution-finding to establish housing for seasonal staff, while also being mindful to not have a negative impact on the larger community and the housing challenges of year-round residents.”
In 2020 FOA leadership formed a Seasonal Workforce Housing Committee and last year adopted a housing strategy with the goal of adding 130 beds for park and partner staff over the next decade. FOA has been able to expedite housing expansion by acquiring land, funding planning and design, and helping to initiate construction when needed. The approach is multi-dimensional, recognizing that there is no one solution and expanding the number of seasonal beds without jeopardizing year-round housing options requires creativity and adaptability. FOA has identified four primary options for increasing capacity: renovating existing units, purchasing commercial facilities, constructing new housing units on carefully selected in-park sites, and adding RV pads to national park campgrounds. In 2023, FOA purchased a former bed and breakfast, which was transitioned to seasonal housing. A win/win solution that FOA was able to move forward on quickly and didn’t reduce local housing stock. FOA maintains ownership of the building, but it is managed and operated by the park.
FOA recently launched the public phase of Raise the Roof, a capital campaign with a goal of raising $10 million in private funding to build new seasonal housing at two locations within the park’s boundary. With over $7.5 million raised toward the goal, FOA and Acadia NP have already begun construction on the Dane Farm campus which will be ready to house 8 seasonal employees in 2025. The second facility, Harden Farm, will add an additional 56 beds when completed. The launch of the public phase of the campaign was announced at FOA’s annual meeting this summer with a comprehensive and fully coordinated fundraising and marketing strategy. Thanks to a strong partner relationship, FOA and the park have been able to navigate the challenges of construction within the park boundaries and are using the capital campaign to unlock an additional $10 million in federal government and other funding sources that comes with match requirements. “Every person in the United States has a right to visit national parks, but we also want to remove barriers for folks that want to pursue a career here,” said Friends of Acadia’s Executive Director Eric Stiles. “If you’re coming to work in Acadia National Park, you want to live in or near the park. That’s part of the experience.”