Trump Administration Plans To Construct Nearly 4 Million Affordable Homes On Federal Land

To address the U.S. housing shortage, President Donald Trump has proposed utilizing a portion of the 650 million acres of federal land for new housing development.

What Happened: The Trump administration is setting up a task force to locate federal land that could potentially be used for affordable housing development. The task force will be co-managed by the Interior Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The initiative’s goal is to open up large areas of federal land by transferring or leasing it to local governments for housing development, as detailed by The Wall Street Journal.

The American Enterprise Institute conducted a preliminary analysis, which indicated that the development of 512,000 acres of the Bureau of Land Management’s lots could result in the construction of three to four million new homes across western states like Nevada, Utah, California, and Arizona.

Trending:

• Are you rich? Here’s what Americans think you need to be considered wealthy.
• This Jeff Bezos-backed startup will allow you to become a landlord in just 10 minutes, with minimum investments as low as $100.

Despite potential obstacles such as local infrastructure and zoning laws, logistical and environmental issues, and opposition from residents, the task force aims to identify suitable land parcels and transfer or lease them to public housing authorities, nonprofits, or local governments for home development.

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, voiced his support for the initiative, saying, “Freeing up federal land for more housing—I think it’s a good idea.”

Why It Matters: The housing shortage in the U.S. is acute and estimated at nearly 7 million units. According to the WSJ, nearly 7.3% of all federal lands are located within metro areas that require more housing and Trump’s proposal could have a significant impact in states like Nevada, Utah, California, and Arizona, where federal land is widely available. Notably, former presidents, including Joe Biden and Barack Obama, had also attempted to convert the government’s unused land into housing.

That being said, there can be several obstacles to building houses on government land. Pete Carroll, the head of public policy and industry-relations research at CoreLogic cautioned, "There's plenty of land, no doubt, but the trick is releasing the right land in the right places.”

Interestingly, this initiative comes at a time when the Trump administration has been reported to be considering significant cuts to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s workforce. In February 2025, the administration could potentially slash as many as 50% of the jobs at the Department, resulting in the loss of 4,000 positions.

Don’t Miss:

• This platform is reshaping how you invest in private companies — and you can be a part of it for $0.18 per share.
• Over the last five years, the price of gold has increased by approximately 83% — Investors like Bill O’Reilly and Rudy Giuliani are using this platform to create customized gold IRAs to help shield their savings from inflation and economic turbulence.

Image via Shutterstock

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.