What Is Trump’s New Affordable Housing Plan for Federal Lands?

The U.S. government has announced a new plan to build affordable housing on federal land across the country, promising to bring to life one of several ideas Donald Trump floated as a solution to the ongoing housing affordability crisis during his presidential campaign.

Why It Matters

Housing was top of mind for many voters ahead of the 2024 race for the White House, after years of skyrocketing home prices, historically high mortgage rates and a chronic lack of inventory squeezed millions of aspiring homebuyers out of the market.

Trump won with the promise to lower the cost of housing and increase inventory through the mass deportations of millions of migrants in the U.S. and deregulatory efforts, while he said Americans will be generally enriched by his tariff policies.

While experts fear that some of Trump’s policies might increase construction costs in the U.S. and exacerbate the sector’s labor shortage, many are optimistic about the impact of deregulation in homebuilding.

What To Know

White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers previously told Newsweek that Trump’s plan to make housing more affordable for Americans included banning “mortgages for illegal immigrants who drive up the price of housing, eliminat[ing] federal regulations driving up housing costs, open[ing] portions of federal land with ultra-low taxes and regulations for large-scale housing construction.”

These efforts, she said, will cut the cost of new homes “in half, and President Trump will end the housing affordability crisis.”

This week, the U.S. government announced plans for one of these ideas—building homes on federal land.

A joint task force set up by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) will be in charge of bringing to life the Trump administration’s new affordable housing plan.

The “Joint Task Force on Federal Land for Housing” will be responsible for identifying “underutilized federal lands suitable for residential development, streamline land transfer processes, and promote policies that increase the availability of affordable housing,” reads a press release from the HUD.

The federal government owns about 640 million acres of land, much of which is not suitable for housing due to environmental regulations, the nature of the terrain, and other restrictions, Tribune reported.

The DOI oversees more than 500 million acres of federal land, much of which is suitable for residential use, HUD Secretary Scott Turner and DOI Secretary Doug Burgum wrote in an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal.

It will be up to the HUD to pinpoint which areas of the country most desperately need affordable housing, while the DOI will then identify suitable locations for homebuilding, considering the environmental impact it would have on the land and any possible related restrictions. These lands will then be transferred or leased to states or local governments, which will be allowed to build new affordable homes in the areas.

A key part of this plan is to loosen regulations around building on federal land. Turner and Burgum described the regulatory process around building on federal land as a “nightmare of red tape” comprising “lengthy environmental reviews, complex transfer protocols and disjointed agency priorities.”

Under the new plan, the joint task force will be able to “cut through the bureaucracy,” though Turner and Burgum specified that this does not equal a “free-for-all” to build on federal lands.

What Affordable Housing Programs Exist Already?

There are already several major affordable housing programs backed by the federal government.

Some of the most important ones include the Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) program; tenant-based rental assistance programs; project-based rental assistance programs; public housing; the Choice Neighborhoods program; the HOME Investment Partnership Program; the National Housing Trust Fund (HTF), the Capital Magnet Fund, and the Rural Housing Service programs.

All of these, with the exception of the LIHTC program, are administered by the HUD. The LIHTC, created by the Tax Reform Act of 1986, is considered the most important resource for creating affordable housing in the U.S.: the program provides state and local LIHTC-allocating agencies the equivalent of about $10 billion in annual budget authority to issue tax credits for building, rehabilitating or acquiring rental housing for lower-income households.

The Trump administration and Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have recently come under fire for terminating a $1 billion program administered by the HUD—the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program—aimed at preserving affordable housing. The program had already allocated funding to upgrade at least 250,000 housing units nationwide, and their future now remains uncertain.

How Affordable Is Housing in the US?

Home prices are still rising across the country and mortgage rates are expected to remain between 6 percent and 7 percent throughout 2025 and 2026, according to experts.

Last month, the median sale price of a typical U.S. home was $425,061, according to Redfin data, up 3.1 percent year-over-year. As of March 13, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.65 percent, down 0.09 percent from a year earlier and up 0.02 percent from a week earlier, according to Freddie Mac.

Climbing prices and stubbornly high mortgage rates are an enormous challenge facing Americans hoping to get on the property ladder, while U.S. homeowners are struggling with other issues—including rising insurance premiums and property taxes, as well as homeowners association (HOA) fees.

According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, 31.3 percent of American households were cost burdened in 2023, including 27.1 percent of households with a mortgage and 49.7 percent of households that rented their homes. Households are considered “cost burdened” when they spend more than 30 percent of their income toward housing.

What People Are Saying

Scott Turner and Doug Burgum wrote in their joint op-ed published on the Wall Street Journal: “This is about more than building houses. We want to build hope. Overlooked rural and tribal communities will be a focus of this joint agreement. We are going to invest in America’s many forgotten communities. As we enter the Golden Age promised by President Trump, this partnership will change how we use public resources. A brighter future, with more affordable housing, is on its way.”

Cynthia Seifert, founder of real estate seller leads generator KeyLeads, previously told Newsweek: “For builders, lighter regulations could reduce construction costs and encourage them to undertake more projects, leading to increased housing supply and alleviating pressures on home prices.”

Dan Hnatkovskyy, CEO of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered marketplace Jome, formerly NewHomesMate, previously told Newsweek that the problem with opening up federal land is that a majority of it is in national parks and military bases, “and that’s not where people actually want to live.”

What Happens Next

Neither the HUD or the DOI have offered a timeline of their plan, nor have they specified how much federal land they will be looking to transform into residential areas.

Newsweek contacted the HUD and DOI press offices for comment by email on Tuesday morning, outside of standard working hours.