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- By Brian Edwards
- Real Estate
The heads of two federal agencies announced a new plan to use federal lands to address the nation’s housing shortage, promising a special focus on tribal and rural communities.
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signed an agreement on Monday to create a Joint Task Force for Federal Land Housing. The initiative aims to identify underutilized federal property that could be developed for affordable housing.
“We need more affordable homes in America, about seven million, to be exact,” Turner said in a Facebook video announcing the partnership.
The task force will work to overcome bureaucratic hurdles that have historically slowed housing development on federal lands. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, the secretaries described building on federal land as “a nightmare of red tape — lengthy environmental reviews, complex transfer protocols and disjointed agency priorities.”
Burgum emphasized the potential of leveraging government-owned property. “Our federal lands are an incredible asset on America’s balance sheet,” he said in the Facebook video. The Interior Department manages more than 500 million acres of federal land, while HUD has experience in housing policy and development.
Under the partnership, HUD will assess housing needs in areas with available federal lands, while Interior will identify suitable sites for development, Turner said.
In the op-ed, Turner and Burgum wrote that “overlooked rural and tribal communities will be a focus of this joint agreement.”
The National American Indian Housing Council (NAIHC) “welcomed the news” of an Interior-HUD partnership that could soothe land-leasing and housing stock issues facing Native American housing authorities, Executive Director Rudy Soto (Shoshone Bannock) told Tribal Business News.
“We haven't seen a lot of interagency collaboration between these two departments, so this is very much welcomed, and we are receiving this news in a very positive way. We are just facing such a significant shortage of housing across the country. That's made homeownership unattainable for many of our families,” Soto said. “We look forward to providing our recommendations to streamline environmental review processes.”
In response to questions from Tribal Business News, the Interior Department said it will evaluate lands based on housing potential “while ensuring responsible stewardship,” adding that “in line with Interior's trust responsibilities and the unique status of tribal lands, any potential impact would include thorough consultation with the respective tribal governments to ensure alignment with tribal sovereignty and interests.”
About 47 million acres — or 7.3% of all federal land — fall within metro areas that need more homes, according to a separate Wall Street Journal report Monday. The new Trump administration initiative could impact Western states with large tracts of federal land such as Nevada, Utah, California and Arizona — states where many tribal nations are located and Native communities face housing shortages.
The federal land initiative comes just days after President Trump signed an executive order to scale back the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund — a move that could limit home loan funding for Native Americans as well as non-Natives.
“As Americans confront an urgent need for affordable housing, we must not undermine the tools at our disposal,” the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders said in a statement on Sunday, adding that CDFIs leverage “$8 in private sector investment for every $1 of public funding” for building homes in underserved communities including tribal lands.
Soto echoed the sentiment, stating that cutting CDFI funding and closing Bureau of Indian Affairs offices across the country could worsen Native housing issues rather than help them.
“[CDFIs have] been really essential - they've proven effective in addressing the housing shortage, and would be instrumental in this collaborative effort,” Soto said. “Obviously we’re also concerned about closures that could affect tribal communities where land leases are already backed up - so we hope this partnership helps tribes to take over their own administration and lower barriers for expedited leases.”
Tribal Business News reached out to HUD for more details on how this initiative would focus on tribal communities, but had not received a response.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated with comments from the executive director of the Native American Indian Housing Council and a response from the Department of Interior.
