HUD Sec. Scott Turner announces effort to use federal land to build low-cost housing amid shortage

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner has teamed up with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in a bid to transform "underutilized" federal lands into low-income housing.

The Joint Task Force on Federal Land for Housing initiative announced Monday aims to bridge the nation's shortage of approximately 7 million affordable homes by tapping into the federal government's vast land holdings.

The partnership seeks to "unlock federal lands for the benefit of all Americans," Turner said, adding that HUD will work with the Department of the Interior to "assess the housing needs in areas where federal lands may be available yet underutilized and implement tailored housing programs with guidance from states and localities."

DOI Sec. Doug Burgum and HUD Sec. Scott Turner appear in a video released March 17, 2025.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled "Federal Lands Can Be Home Sweet Home," the two officials outlined their vision for the initiative, which builds on the Interior Department's oversight of more than 500 million acres of federal land.

"America needs more affordable housing, and the federal government can make it happen by making federal land available to build affordable housing stock," they wrote. "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. Interior will identify locations that can support homes while carefully considering environmental impact and land-use restrictions."

According to the Library of Congress, the federal government owns over a quarter of the 2.27 billion acres of land in the U.S., or the equivalent of about 640 million acres. Several federal agencies oversee the management of those properties, including the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service in the Department of the Interior, and others.

While the actual amount of federally owned land in each of the 50 states varies widely, Alaska has the highest concentration of federal land ownership, where over 60% of all federally owned land is located, according to congressional data.

Turner was confirmed as HUD secretary in February after serving as executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council in the first Trump administration.

Turner, who played defensive back in the NFL for eight seasons, also served as an associate pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church, a prominent megachurch in Plano, Texas.

Last month, Turner told the audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, that he believes God is calling him to make a "generational impact."

Turner discussed the housing affordability crisis facing many young Americans, noting that he has a 24-year-old son who does not believe that he will ever be able to buy a home.

"Today, I challenge you to think of this not so much as a crisis, but instead as an opportunity to change course, an opportunity to uplift individuals and families, and lead them down the path of self-sufficiency and self-sustainability," he added.

"An opportunity, if you will, to decrease the cost and increase the supply of safe, quality, affordable housing in our country. An opportunity to enact impactful, enduring policies."

There’s anecdotal evidence in many cities, that housing costs have gone up so drastically, because of a shortage of housing units compared to population.

I know from previous discussions, some Freepers have concerns about their children being able to afford a house.

Housing costs have escalated far faster in recent years, than incomes needed to pay the mortgage.

Even professionally employed people with a six figure income, have trouble affording even a modest home in many places in this country.

Can some proposals such as this help? Or would such housing simply devolve into Section 8 housing cesspool, where none of us would want to live?

BLM owns far too much federal land. Much of this should have been transferred to the states many years ago.

The National Park Service, IMHO, doesn’t own enough, at least in the east. The modern parks movement began in the mid-19th century in response to growing urbanization. The National Park Service was part of that, but state and urban parks should not be overlooked. the first U.S. National Park was Yellowstone (1872). The desert and mountain west was still mostly empty, and it lent itself easily to the creation of the large western parks, usually regarded as the crown jewels of the park system except for those of us who like historical parks, which are mostly in the east and are much smaller.

If I were forced into a choice, I’d save Gettysburg and Antietam over Yellowstone and Yosemite. But that’s a choice I’d rather not have to make. We should save both. And we should expand park assets in the eastern half of the country, starting with the historical parks — especially given that the public schools are now defaulting so completely on teaching American history that if the kids don’t get an occasional field trip to Gettysburg, they won’t know what continent the American Civil War was fought on. The democrats’ successor generations will google on Gettysburg, see some old photos with seas of white faces, and likely think it must have happened somewhere in Europe. And I exaggerate only slightly. Many of them already don’t know in what century it was fought, or which side we were on.

Expand park assets in the east, especially to protect historic sites. Privatize chunks of BLM land in the west. Use a portion of the proceeds of BLM land sales to fund the park expansion in the east. And let’s not forget the deactivation of military posts. I tend to think that DOD should have kept the Presidio, but as it was, part of that property was carved off for parks, recreation and protection of historic sites, while the bulk of it was GIVEN to the State of California and/or the City of San Francisco so that the Cali dems could play kissy face politics with big developers. The Presidio would have been worth billions. Meanwhile, the NPS has to scratch for relative pennies to protect core battlefield land in Virginia, Tennessee or Georgia from developers. It’s insane — and in democrat administration, the NPS itself will be run by people who would rather spend money on solar powered outhouses in Yellowstone than on acquiring endangered core battlefield inholdings at Gettysburg or Antietam.

The other thing to note here is that using underutilized federal lands for affordable housing, if it is done at all, should be done with an eye towards better integrating residents of this newly created housing into better jobs and a path up in American society. That means finding available federal lands within or in close proximity to major metro areas. And the wakeup call will come when the locals discover that valued open space and parkland is being converted to low income housing estates. Nice park you had there, chump ... but we know you’ll come to like the new Cabrini Green and that you will welcome 10,000 third world immigrant kids who don’t speak English to your local school system.

I’d put 20 of those new Tesla micro-housing pods that Musk recently touted in Nancy Pelosi’s back yard before I’d sacrifice one square inch of public park space in a major metro area. On the east coast, started with gated compounds on Nantucket.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.