A new federal initiative has just been announced that is designed to open federal lands across the country for affordable housing construction.
The initiative, officially called the Joint Task Force on Federal Land for Housing, sets as its goal identifying underutilized property owned by the federal government, while also establishing what is hoped will be a streamlined process for transferring such lands for housing construction.
The initiative has been jointly announced by Doug Burgum, Department of the Interior Secretary, and Scott Turner, the secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In making the announcement, which was first published in an op-ed in the pages of the Wall Street Journal, Burgum and Turner remarked: “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.”
The core of the initiative, the announcement continued, will be trying to ensure affordability.
Where exactly the lands to be transferred are located, has not yet been identified. But it is known that the Interior Department currently oversees more than 500 acres of federal lands.
Notes the publication The Hill: “The two secretaries also vowed to streamline the regulatory process so that building on federal lands doesn’t get held up with environmental reviews, transfer protocols, and other priorities.”
According to a separate article in the Wall Street Journal, the move to use federal lands for housing development could have a particular impact in “such states as Nevada, Utah, California, and Arizona, where federal land is more abundant.”
The publication additionally noted that some 7.3% of federal lands are in defined metro areas, meaning that the success of the effort “hinges on releasing federal land in the right places.”
March 18, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Department of Urban Housing and Development
