Many FBI agents are struggling to make ends meet. Housing costs are to blame

Many FBI agents based in cities with a high cost of living are struggling to make ends meet, forcing them to make hours-long commutes or double up in apartments, according to bureau and Justice Department officials.

Natalie Bara, president of the FBI Agents Association, said she's heard from two or three agents sharing an apartment near New York City, andothers who commute four hours each day, back and forth to their field offices. Some circumstances are even more extreme, she added.

"They're having to juggle being able to afford rent and/or utilities versus being able to actually buy groceries, so it's getting to a level where it's becoming very, very difficult to not only recruit agents into these high cost of living areas, but also retain them in those areas," said Bara, who is a second-generation FBI agent.

A survey last year found more than two-thirds of agents who live in these places said it's difficult to manage on their current salaries.

The Agents Association is pressing for a housing allowance to support those workers who pay steep rent or mortgages because they livein New York, Newark, Honolulu, San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Miami, Seattle and Washington, D.C. They're asking for $165 million to be included in the Justice Department's 2025 budget to pay for a pilot program.

FBI officials have been looking into the problem since 2021, comparing government compensation scales against the poverty line and analyzing how other federal agencies and private sector employers pay their workers.

"There are multiple stressors that folks experience," said Caroline Otto, assistant director of the FBI's Resource Planning office. "We have heard very compelling and heart-wrenching stories across the workforce