SHERIDAN — As many builders across Wyoming chip away at a demand for homes that still outpaces supply, any new housing will help alleviate Wyoming’s so-called housing crisis.
A greater number of all types of housing — from low income to mid-level to higher end, custom housing — would help, experts say. Available housing at all levels allows people mobility, meaning that someone who moves into a large, custom home at a higher price could free up a mid-level home for another family.
However, if a community doesn’t have homes at a higher price point, those who may have bought larger homes will likely stay in their current home, locking up inventory.
So across the state, home builders and contractors are working to keep up with demand for new homes of all kinds, while facing high materials costs, persistent post-pandemic staffing challenges and a strict regulatory environment.
“We’re just like any other industry, in Sheridan and in general. The affordable housing issue is not really a construction issue, because there are a lot of moving parts to it,” Will O’Dell, a project manager for Sheridan-based O’Dell Construction said. “It’s not going to be resolved by doing one thing.”
The shortage of affordable housing is not isolated to Wyoming, and is also happening across the country. It began in 2010 with the Great Recession, when there was a dearth of building for nearly a decade.
Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, when, although many builders were deemed essential, some struggled to find employees, much like other industries across the nation from schools and hospitals to restaurants and manufacturers.
Then came a global rise in inflation rates that lasted from 2021 into 2022.
O’Dell Construction did not lose any employees during COVID-19 to layoffs, but demand was so high for new housing no one could keep up, O’Dell said. Simultaneously, material costs shot way up, and likely never will go back to where they were before 2020.
Joshua Smith, owner and president of A&B Buildings and Supplies, said his company has been fortunate to maintain its qualified employees, but that most builders would love to have more workers on site. Supplies, he said, have become a bit easier to come by following the pandemic years but have not come down in price at all.
“What used to cost $150, $200 a square foot is $300 to $400 a square foot now,” he said, adding labor rates have also consistently gone up.
O’Dell Construction does not build spec homes or those typically-considered “affordable housing,” but O’Dell said he’s watched the discussion unfold as leaders talk about the state’s housing crisis.
Local governments must do their due diligence when permitting and requiring that developers meet local regulations, but those regulations can add additional costs for a developer, he said. Although he said he doesn’t have a perfect solution, close partnerships between local government and builders are key.
“There are some huge soft costs in construction that can be tens of thousands of dollars,” O’Dell said. “Certain engineering studies, where you’re looking at square-foot costs per house, and you’re spending another $20,000 on studies that don’t add to square footage but add to the overall cost. It is difficult to (build) that into affordable housing.
“But the City (of Sheridan) is forthcoming and helpful and will work with a builder who comes with ideas,” he said. “There needs to be more of that. They want the same thing we do.”
Dan Benford, executive director of the Associated General Contractors of Wyoming, said that, most often, his organization wants less regulation when it comes to building in the state. The AGC typically represents general contractors and suppliers across Wyoming on the commercial and heavy civil side, but many members do private work as well.
“We’re generally in favor of less regulations that allow all of us to get the job done for Wyoming,” Benford said.
People in all types of construction companies across the state have felt a worker shortage, from the commercial and civil side of the industry, and can struggle when it comes to building and fulfilling state and municipal contracts, Benford said.
“People are still struggling to find workers. There is a lack of workers across the state of Wyoming in general, and it doesn’t matter what industry you are in. But construction does seem to be one of the harder-hit industries,” Benford said.
Benford suspects that as schools moved away from CTE training for several decades, construction fell behind. The AGC of Wyoming has spent several years making a targeted effort to visit 17 of the 23 county school systems to talk to students about construction careers.
“We’re very active in places like Campbell County and the Big Horn Basin, and we’ve seen our ability to draw people to the industry grow,” Benford said. “But we still remain at a shortage.”
The shortage, however, isn’t affecting contractors’ abilities to do the work they are taking on, he said, but only because contractors are not taking on all the work they could, if they had more employees on site.
“They have to manage their contracts and are mindful of their limitations. What I hear from our contractors is that they could be doing far more work if they had the workforce to do it, but the workforce doesn’t exist in Wyoming right now,” he said.
When it comes to affordable housing, Benford said an added question becomes: Who will build the workforce housing for a workforce that doesn’t yet exist?
“Our home builders who would be the ones to line up to do affordable housing don’t have the workforce necessarily to take those jobs on,” Benford said. “Affordable housing has been at the forefront of conversation in the state, and state government, and it’s a tough one.”
When builders are asked to take on an affordable housing project, they’re also often asked to forego another development that may have been more lucrative, he said.
“Beyond the question of, do you build the housing first and bring the workforce in, or does the workforce come and then the housing follows — it’s even trickier than that,” he said.
