As cities around the country are reportedly considering converting vacant office space into apartments and other uses, the federal government is missing an opportunity to repurpose obsolete buildings it no longer needs into housing for those experiencing the worst of America’s historic affordability crisis: unhoused persons.
The McKinney-Vento Act gives nonprofit organizations and state and local governments an effective right of first refusal to acquire at no cost surplus federal properties — including office buildings — to facilitate their redevelopment as affordable apartments for families and individuals experiencing homelessness.
The several hundred conversions that have happened since the law was enacted in 1987 represent only a fraction of what’s possible. The obstacles to more progress are unnecessarily cumbersome procedures and a seeming lack of priority among the three federal agencies involved: the General Services Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Dozens of potential redevelopments, which could house thousands now living on our streets, are being delayed and denied. Analysis by the National Homelessness Law Center indicates that, between January 2020 and March 2023, the federal government identified 65 properties suitable for housing conversions — probably a conservative estimate. Redevelopment applications were submitted for 10 of the properties, but the federal government approved only three.
The Biden-Harris administration seemed to recognize the need to fix the process so it can result in more affordable housing. The White House’s Housing Supply Action Plan, announced last May, and the Interagency Council on Homelessness’s Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, rolled out in December, both identified improving the program as a priority.
Unfortunately, all that has actually happened is the issuance of proposed tweaks to the federal rules that fail to address the bureaucratic barriers and establish affordable housing conversions as the priority they should be. In fact, the federal government already has all the authority it needs under existing laws and regulations to work on a more timely, flexible and responsive basis with homeless service organizations and their state and local government financing partners.
A more streamlined federal approach would allow conversions to more places like the Alameda Wellness Center in Alameda County, Calif., a surplus U.S. Department of Agriculture facility that could provide 100 units of permanent supportive housing for unhoused elders, a medical respite center, and a resource center serving more than 700 persons a year.
With rates of chronic and unsheltered homelessness at all-time highs in our country, violence against our unhoused neighbors on the rise, and local communities increasingly resorting to draconian and costly actions such as mass sweeps of encampments, the Biden-Harris administration can and must move more quickly to create more deeply affordable housing and this opportunity is “low-hanging fruit.”
Antonia Fasanelli is the executive director of the National Homelessness Law Center. Stockton Williams is the executive director of the National Council of State Housing Agencies.