The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner and U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Doug Burgum on Monday announced a joint task force on Federal Land for Housing to identify underutilized federal lands for residential development, streamline land transfer processes and promote policies that increase the availability of affordable housing.
The task force was announced early this morning in a Wall Street Journal op-ed penned by Turner and Burgum titled, “Federal Lands Can Be Home Sweet Home.”
The move coincides with the Trump Administration‘s plans during the election cycle to build on federal land. Last month, Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) of Nevada submitted a letter to the state Senate’s majority leader and assembly speaker to encourage the release of federal land for housing.
“Under this agreement, HUD will pinpoint where housing needs are most pressing and guide the process by working with state and local leaders who know their communities best,” Turner and Burgum wrote in the op-ed. “Interior will identify locations that can support homes while carefully considering environmental impact and land-use restrictions. Working together, our agencies can take inventory of underused federal properties, transfer or lease them to states or localities to address housing needs and support the infrastructure required to make development viable—all while ensuring affordability remains at the core of the mission.”
Burgum and Turner wrote that “the partnership will cut through the bureaucracy,” with the DOI reducing the red tape behind land transfers or leases to public housing authorities, nonprofits and local governments.
HUD’s role in the task force will be to ensure these projects align with affordability goals and development needs. “This isn’t a free-for-all to build on federal lands, although we recognize that bad-faith critics will likely call it that. It’s a strategic effort to use our resources responsibly while preserving our most beautiful lands,” the op-ed continued.
The op-ed ended with a promise to invest in America’s forgotten communities. “As we enter the Golden Age promised by President Trump, this partnership will change how we use public resources. A brighter future, with more affordable housing, is on its way.”
Despite philosophical differences in many housing initiatives, both Democrats and Republicans have supported proposals to sell federal land to developers for affordable housing construction.
The federal government controls about 650 million acres of land, but much of it isn’t feasible for a multitude of reasons.
As HousingWire previously reported, using federal land for the purpose of building more homes hasn’t worked on a wider scale before because state and federal officials are playing hot potato with the issue of affordable housing.
“[Land use] has largely been seen as a state and local issue. We’ve typically left the development to the market to produce, you know, and even the way we build affordable housing right is through incentivizing the private sector to build right with targeted affordability,” said Andrew Jakabovics, vice president for policy development at Enterprise Community Partners.
