Wyoming
‘I lost my job, my housing and health insurance all in one day’: Federal workers say cuts go deep
Couch Surfing
Out on the snowy prairie near Pinedale, Samantha Marks gave a Zoom tour of the log barn she built herself last summer. There’s a sleeping loft, a wood stove and big views of the Wind River Range.
“My wonderful boyfriend is helping me move all of my stuff into the barn because, with the federal employee thing, I was living in federal housing. So don’t have that much longer,” Marks said with a laugh.
Her boyfriend carted stuff in on his mountain bike because her driveway isn’t plowed. Outside the wide double barn doors, he piled up camping gear and pots and pans.
Marks got laid off as a probationary physical science technician from the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Now, she only has a few days left to get moved out of employee housing. Marks said there’s no way she can find an apartment in Pinedale – they go too fast. Plus, she said they cost around $2,000 a month. But she can’t move into this barn either. It isn’t heated or insulated.
“I’ll just be couch surfing until we can get the camper here.”
Her plan is that when the snow melts, she’ll pull a friend’s camper out here and live in that until she can build a house.
Marks thought she was being smart when she bought this land. She waited until the Forest Service offered her a permanent position. It was her dream job.
“On paper, I did everything right,” Marks said. “I don’t know if I would have made the same choice. I probably would have waited another year or two to pick this place. But now I’m also kind of glad that I did because I need some sort of stability in my life.”
Marks has decided to stay in Pinedale since she’s built a community here. This summer, though, she’ll have to hustle to find work and build a house.
“I’m pretty overwhelmed, honestly,” Marks said. “I lost my job, my housing and health insurance all in one day.”
Wyoming’s Affordable Housing Problem
These federal layoffs are hitting Wyoming in the middle of an affordable housing crisis. The state will be short as many as 38,000 homes by the end of this decade. And that much competition means that about 50,000 Wyomingites barely make enough to afford their rent or mortgage, according to a 2024 study by the Wyoming Community Development Authority.
“This is a hard statistic to even fathom, but it’s real,” said Chris Volzke, the organization’s deputy executive director. “The median household income in Wyoming, which is a little over $70,000 a year, cannot afford the median priced house in every county in the state without being cost burdened.”
Cost burdened is when you have to pay more than a third of your income for your home. Volzke said their study shows that more Wyomingites are packing themselves into shared housing or even becoming unhoused.
“ The majority of homeless people in Wyoming are Wyomingites,” Volzke said. “It’s primarily our neighbors and people in our community that had a series of events that forced them out of their rental into a car, into the street, whatever the scenario is.”
One of those scenarios could be getting fired from a federal agency.
Full-time RVing
Alan Willes and Teri Gilfilen are both in their 70s and live full-time in their RV. They talked on Zoom from their RV couch, their cat Petra curled up next to them.
“ We’re at a RV resort in Camp Verde,” Willes said.
Each winter, they lead tours and man a visitor center at Palatki Heritage Site outside Sedona, Arizona. They get paid a stipend of $20 dollars a day. But because of the federal funding freeze, they haven’t gotten paid yet and the check is now two months late.
“If we could get [our stipend] without us costing an arm and a leg,” Willes said. They know hiring an attorney and fighting for the money in court is outside their budget. “It’d probably cost us $20,000 to go get $3,000. No, we can’t do that. They got us over a barrel.”
Right now, they’re paying $1,500 dollars a month for a lot in an RV park.
“Our next plan is waiting for the weather to break and go back up to Jackson, Wyoming, if we don’t freeze ourselves. And wait ‘til May, [which] is when the float trip season starts for me,” Willes said.
Every summer, Willes works as a shuttle driver for a rafting company. He’s worried the recent and expected future firings of National Park Service employees will hurt business.
“We’re very nervous about that,” he said. “If the park service closes down, I don’t know if we’d be closed down. I would think so.”
That would put their housing at risk, since the company lets them park in a pasture for free.
“Plan A, B, C, D. With today’s accelerations that are happening, I don’t think one plan cuts it,” said Gilfilen.
One of those plans is getting off the road and settling down in Wyoming.
“ Never in my life would I have thought I would be living in an RV in [my] 70s,” said Gilfilen. “Yeah, it just totally surprises me. But we do have an adventurous life.”
Wyoming Public Radio reached out to Coconino and Bridger-Teton national forests but both declined to comment. However, Coconino National Forest did send Willes and Gilfilen an email the same day Wyoming Public Radio reached out for comment. It said they could expect their money within the week. As of March 7, no check has arrived.
CASPER, Wyo. — High school athletics in Wyoming could see some drastic changes in the coming years following legislative changes to the state’s education budget, the Wyoming High School Activities Association recently announced in a statement.
According to the WHSAA, Wyoming school districts are facing a projected $3.9 million shortfall in activities funding, forcing officials to consider significant cuts to high school sports and extracurricular programs.
The WHSAA shared details regarding a new “silo” funding model implemented by the Legislature, stating that the recalibrated block grant model reduced funding for student activities and extra-duty responsibilities from $46.3 million to $42.4 million, an approximately 8.4% decrease statewide.
WHSAA Commissioner Trevor Wilson said the restructuring also restricts district access to an additional $76.2 million in previously flexible funding.
“A significant portion of the [April 28 WHSAA Board of Directors] meeting was dedicated to discussing the projected funding shortfall,” Wilson wrote.
The WHSAA is weighing several strategies to address rising costs with fewer resources. Proposed changes include eliminating regional tournaments and reducing the number of teams qualifying for state events from eight to four; limiting wrestling to two classes and restricting track and field state participants to the top 16 marks; making cuts to soccer, indoor track and field, Nordic and Alpine skiing, swimming and diving, spring golf and tennis; and reducing in-person speech and debate events by half and centrally locating All-State Music events to minimize travel. The board also recommended increasing gate admission or implementing student participation fees to offset costs.
While the WHSAA release states that no plans have been finalized and the various changes are currently just possibilities, Natrona County School District 1 Board of Trustees member Mary Schmidt criticized the WHSAA’s handling of the news at Monday’s board meeting.
“I take some issues with this, [including] the sheer fact that we as Board of Trustees members have not talked about that at all,” Schmidt said. “It is not our intent and it has not been brought to us to cut our athletics or activities budget for the upcoming school year. … I take issue with them picking sports and getting the community upset and ginning them up to be upset that this is all going to be cut when that hasn’t been discussed.”
Later in the meeting, Superintendent Angela Hensley clarified that Natrona County School District 1’s athletics and activities budget saw a reduction of roughly $550,000 in the coming year’s budget, but said the local school district does not plan to cut any sports.
“Thank you, Trustee Schmidt, for saying this, because I think people are wondering — we are not planning to cut athletics and activities for next year,” Hensley said. “We do have to take a look at our entire budget as we have talked about, as we learn more about these new rules that come in.”
Related
Republished with permission from Wyoming News Now, a TV news outlet covering the Cheyenne and Casper areas.
Cheyenne City Council has introduced a temporary moratorium, or pause, on new data center construction.
“The end goal is to actually have regulations in place, to have really heavy public involvement with this with data centers,” said Councilman Mark Moody.
The proposed ordinance is not a permanent ban on data centers and would not affect data centers currently under construction.
Councilman Moody says this is a bipartisan issue.
“I just want to make this clear, I’m not against data centers. We do need them from a national security perspective,” he said.
He said there needs to be more public input and regulations regarding data centers in Cheyenne.
The ordinance would require city staff to study data center impacts such as electricity usage, electricity tariffs, closed-loop cooling systems, groundwater impacts, agricultural impacts, and land value.
Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development corporation for Cheyenne and Laramie County, reported in November 2025 that there are 12 operational data centers in Wyoming, five under construction and plans for 43 data centers announced across the state.
“There needs to be more public input with this, and also to see how many we can sustain here in this community, cause there are talks of 43, and then another day 70. How many can we sustain here?” said Councilman Moody.
The proposed moratorium will now go to the Public Services Committee on Monday, May 18 at noon in the Municipal Building.
Sheridan will play in the North Regional Tournament at Gillette, while the South Regional Tournament will be played at Rock Springs.
North Regional Tournament at Gillette:
Checking record vs. highest team in the quadrant not involved in the tie, Thunder Basin gets the #1 Northeast seed over Campbell County, because the Lady Bolts went 3-1 vs. Sheridan, whereas the Lady Camels went 2-2.
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 NE) Thunder Basin vs. (#4 NW) Jackson – 11am
(#2 NW) Natrona County vs. (#3 NE) Sheridan – 11am
(#2 NE) Campbell County vs. (#3 NW) Kelly Walsh – 1pm
(#1 NW) Cody vs. (#4 NE) Worland – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Thunder Basin/Jackson winner vs. Natrona County/Sheridan winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh winner vs. Cody/Worland winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Thunder Basin/Jackson loser vs. Natrona County/Sheridan loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh loser vs. Cody/Worland loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
South Regional Tournament at Rock Springs:
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 SW) Laramie vs. (#4 SE) Torrington – 11am
(#2 SE) Cheyenne East vs. (#3 SW) Green River – 11am
(#2 SW) Rock Springs vs. (#3 SE) Wheatland – 1pm
(#1 SE) Cheyenne Central vs. (#4 SW) Cheyenne South – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Laramie/Torrington winner vs. Cheyenne East/Green River winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Rock Springs/Wheatland winner vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Laramie/Torrington loser vs. Cheyenne East/Green River loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Rock Springs/Wheatland loser vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
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