HUD, Interior announce plan to use federal land for affordable housing

Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner and Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced on Monday plans to identify federal lands where affordable housing could be built.

Turner and Burgum will launch the Joint Task Force on Federal Land for Housing to find underutilized lands for residential development and to streamline the process to transfer the lands for housing use.

In an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, they promoted the plans as a way to increase the housing supply and lower costs for Americans.

“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,” they wrote.

The Interior Department oversees more than 500 million acres of federal lands, and the department argues much of it is suitable for residential use.

The two secretaries also vowed to streamline the regulatory process so building on a federal lands doesn’t get held up with environmental reviews, transfer protocols and other priorities, according to the announcement.

Housing affordability was a top issue for voters in 2024, and President Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harris both had proposals to tackle housing costs.

Trump, at the time, proposed a plan to cut “unnecessary regulations” that Republicans say raise housing costs and to promote homeownership through tax incentives. He had also argued during the campaign that cracking down on border crossings was a way to counter rising housing costs. 

A Pew Research Center survey in October showed that 69 percent of voters said they are “very concerned” about home prices, a jump of 8 percentage points from the figure recorded in April 2023.