Government report finds just 12% of federal offices occupied in D.C.

Federal agencies used only 12% of their headquarters space in the District of Columbia last year, according to a new report that confirms government offices in the nation’s capital have become ghost towns.

The Public Buildings Reform Board, an independent agency with a mandate to dispose of unused properties, said workers sent home by pandemic shutdown policies haven’t come back to the office. Occupancy rates last year were less than a third of what they were in 2019.

The Department of Agriculture, with space for more than 7,400 employees at its headquarters, averaged just 456 workers, or about 6% occupancy. Labor, Veterans Affairs, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission also came in at less than 10%.

Even the General Services Administration, the federal government’s chief landlord, operated at just 14% capacity in its headquarters building on F Street NW, with 359 workers a day out of a capacity of 2,532 seats.

The best-performing agency in the study, the U.S. Agency for International Development, was using just 26% of its space.