Arizona’s housing supply is growing, but not fast enough to keep up with the demand. Now federal agencies are eyeing the state’s millions of acres of public land as a possible solution, raising concerns from environmental advocacy groups.
The heads of the departments of the Interior and Housing and Urban Development announced plans in March to create an interagency task force to identify parcels of “underutilized” federal land that could be suitable for residential development and streamline land transfers to address the country’s affordable housing crisis.
“All options are being explored, including transferring or leasing federal lands to public housing authorities, nonprofits, and local governments,” a spokesperson from the Department of the Interior said in a statement. “However, lands within national parks, wildlife refuges, and other conservation areas will remain protected.”
According to the 2024 State of Housing in Arizona Report by the Arizona Research Center for Housing Equity and Sustainability at Arizona State University, the state is confronting a housing crisis as the availability and affordability of housing have declined in recent years.
The report also highlighted the 14,237 people experiencing homelessness in Arizona, the highest number recorded since 2010.
Meanwhile, Arizona has over 28 million acres of federal land. While housing advocates are eager to find solutions to the rising demand for affordable housing, environmentalists are worried that this plan could lead to the destruction of natural resources or the privatization of undeveloped public lands.
“Get ready for a housing development to pave over your favorite hiking trail. The Trump administration just announced a bleak vision for traffic jams and suburban sprawl across the West,” said Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities, a nonpartisan conservation and advocacy organization, in a news release.
“The president wants to sell off the lands that are most accessible to Westerners for hiking, hunting, and camping and turn them into miles of McMansions that stretch across our deserts and mountains.”
But Arizona is not the only state facing an affordable housing crisis, and the Trump administration is floating the controversial plan to address the issue.
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A transfer of public lands to private development would have a disproportionate impact on Western states, where the vast majority of federal lands are held. In Arizona, 38.7% of the state is made up of federal lands, eighth among all states for federal acreage, according to a 2018 Congressional Research Service report.
For the order to have the biggest impact, the land transfers would need to serve the state’s largest population centers in Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff, according to Kimberly Winson-Geideman, a real estate expert with the Arizona Research Center for Housing Equity and Sustainability.
“The people that are most affected by the affordability issue are the people at the lower end of the income strata,” said Winson-Geideman. “The more expensive it gets, the more and more difficult it gets for those people at the lower end to have housing, to own a house or even for rent.”
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In an interview with Bloomberg Law, the acting director of the Bureau of Land Management, Jon Raby, said the agency is studying the potential sale of 400,000 acres of land within a 10-mile radius of cities and towns with a population of 5,000 or higher.
A map analysis by the Center for Biological Diversity showed the proposal had the potential to impact BLM conservation areas across Arizona, including critical habitat for threatened desert tortoises in the state’s northwestern corner and the designated conservation area along the San Pedro River near Sierra Vista.
“Building 10 miles out from small towns is not a recipe for smart growth or affordable housing. It’s just a giveaway to billionaire developers at the expense of America’s parks, trails, and wildlife,” said Weiss of the Center for Western Priorities in a news release.
Most of the land surrounding Flagstaff is managed by the Forest Service under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which was not included in the joint announcement. The Forest Service is allowed to lease administrative land to build affordable housing under a provision in the 2018 Farm Bill and reauthorized in the 2024 EXPLORE Act, although this provision has only been used successfully in one Colorado community near the White River National Forest.
The joint announcement from the DOI and HUD comes as the Trump administration pushes to cut federal spending, including programs meant to address issues around affordable housing.
The administration has stalled at least $60 million of funding at the Department of Housing and Urban Development largely intended for affordable housing development, according to the Associated Press. It has also been reported that the Trump administration is seeking to cut half of the workforce at the agency.
“Trump’s latest gambit to privatize our cherished public lands is faker than his spray tan,” said Randi Spivak at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement. “This ill-conceived plan will do nothing to comprehensively address affordable housing needs in this country. Instead, it’ll encourage exurban sprawl and destroy the open spaces that belong to every American. We need policies that encourage affordable and equitable infill near existing public transit while protecting our public lands from development.”
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There is precedent for developing federal land for affordable housing.
In 1998, federal lawmakers passed the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act, which allows the Bureau of Land Management to sell tracts of public land within a specific boundary around Las Vegas. Revenues from the sales are contributed to the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the Nevada General Election Fund, and a special account for the secretary of the Interior for projects like wildfire prevention and conservation initiatives.
As of March 2025, some 38,881 acres in Nevada have been moved out of BLM management through private sales, auctions, and other means, but only 30 acres have been directly sold for affordable housing development.
Nicole Newhouse, executive director of the Arizona Housing Coalition, an association that advocates for affordable housing, said in a statement that the organization welcomes innovative solutions for underused federal lands to meet the state’s critical need for affordable housing, but any development would need “robust environmental safeguards, careful community input, and transparent oversight.”
“Our commitment remains in ensuring that any new housing developments not only increase supply but also protect the integrity of our natural resources and the character of our communities,” Newhouse said.
While details of who might sit on the task force have yet to be announced, the Interior Department said the group will inventory “underutilized” federal land and facilitate transfers to state and localities to address housing needs, keeping affordability central.
“I just think generally it’s worth looking at, and they’re just getting started. I don’t think people need to be afraid,” said Winson-Geideman. “Thirty-eight percent of the state is federal land. I don’t think it will all disappear at once.”
John Leos covers environmental issues for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Send tips or questions to john.leos@arizonarepublic.com.
Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Trump agencies see public lands as solution to housing crisis