FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. — Skylah Haught splits her time each year between working in health care in Huntington and guiding families down the New River in Fayetteville.
For more than three years, she’s returned each summer to work as a rafting guide at ACE Adventures Resort. It’s a job, she said, that wouldn’t be possible without the small cabin her company provides.
“They give you four walls and a roof, and you kind of make it your own,” she said. “If we didn’t have housing, I don’t know where we would live.”
Fayette County’s tourism industry has grown rapidly in recent years, bringing more visitors and more demand for housing to the New River Gorge region. But residents say housing hasn’t kept pace with that growth, making it harder to live and work in the area.
Despite the strain, residents say they haven’t seen much action from state lawmakers.
With the primary election just four weeks away, residents want candidates to prioritize solutions that address the growing shortage.
Tourism growth in the region is creating jobs and new pressures
A major driver of Fayette County’s economy, tourism brought nearly two million visitors last year who spent $173 million, supporting over 1,600 jobs in the region.
Tim Naylor at the New River Gorge Convention and Visitors Bureau said that the industry would be strained without a strong workforce to staff shops, restaurants and hotels to serve the influx of tourists.
“If a restaurant or a tourist destination can’t get employees, then they’re really limiting the number of people that they can serve,” he said.
Naylor said housing was “one of the biggest issues” facing the region because the lack of supply is making it harder for workers to live nearby.
He pointed to the rapid growth of short-term rentals as one factor tightening the housing supply.
“Those are keeping people who are trying to find a home in the area from doing so,” he said.
The challenges are already playing out for major employers in the area.
At ACE Adventures Resort, river operations manager Bryant Baker said the company depends on its seasonal workers, many of whom come from other states.
He said it would be nearly impossible to hire enough guides to keep up with the demand if the company didn’t provide housing.
“There aren’t a lot of available rental opportunities here,” he said. “There’s no way a river guide would be able to afford renting a place in town for six months.”
And to help people in the area, Baker said, there needs to be better planning and direction for the growing tourism industry. He would like to see lawmakers engage with residents to hear about the problem.
“We need to do tourism sustainability — not just make as much money as fast as you can,” he said.
The housing supply is falling short
Fayette County and the surrounding region face a growing shortage of affordable rental units, particularly for low- and moderate-income families.
Ten minutes south of Fayetteville in Oak Hill, Anita and Don Hill are renting a one-story ranch-style home they say has everything they need.
They moved in three years ago after an electrical fire burned their home in Monroe County, leaving them with only the clothes on their backs and nowhere to go.
It took nearly three months of searching to find a new place to live that was within their budget and accessible for their disabilities. They finally found a place in town close to where their daughter lives.
“We called every place we could find, and they didn’t have anything available,” Anita Hill said.
State leaders have offered few solutions so far
James Birt, who runs Housed-Up Oak Hill, a nonprofit that connects people, especially those who are homeless or at risk, with housing resources, said the region has reached capacity.
“Anything that could be rented is basically already rented,” he said.
Birt has pushed for legislation to boost funding for the state’s Affordable Housing Fund, which supports nonprofits and local agencies working to expand housing options.
The program, administered by the West Virginia Housing Development Fund, is funded through fees on the sales of manufactured homes and generates about $1 million per year, far less than is needed.
Nate Testman, director of the WVHDF, said dozens of organizations compete for awards from the fund. He said the number of applications the agency receives is routinely double or triple the amount of available funding.
Testman said to address the housing shortage in the New River Gorge region and other tourism-heavy parts of the state, the agency is working with developers to help finance building workforce housing.
But he said challenges like the state’s aging housing stock and limited land have made that difficult.
And for some in the region, that means the state isn’t doing enough.
Colby Lopez, a Democratic candidate running for the 51st district of the House of Delegates representing Fayetteville, said the shortage has pushed him and his family to consider moving in with relatives.
He said to address the housing issue, he believes in multiple approaches, including passing statewide legislation to establish a tenants’ bill of rights and creating a cap on the number of short-term rentals in the area.
He also suggested more dedicated funding for the state’s dilapidated buildings program to remove abandoned structures, and expand options for constructing smaller, affordable homes.
Mountain State Spotlight reached out to the other candidates running for election to the House of Delegates 51st district, but they did not respond.
Those other candidates are Republicans, including incumbent Marshall Clay, Dan Hill and Cy Persinger.
For Skylah Haught, the housing shortage isn’t just frustrating; it shapes whether she can keep coming back.
She’s been searching for a permanent place to live in Fayette County for years, but hasn’t found anything she can afford.
And she wants state leaders to do something about it.
But until they do, she said, she won’t be able to live in the same place she works.
“If they stopped allowing Airbnbs within the county, that would get my vote.”