The departments of Interior and Urban Development are assigning a task force to study the idea of transferring or leasing public lands to local governments for housing projects.Conservation groups say the plan could lead to the destruction of natural resources and allow the Trump administration to start privatizing public lands.In Arizona, 38.7 percent of the state is federal lands, but large areas are removed from population centers, which could make the land unsuitable for housing.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.Protests: Arizonans gather to express worry over Trump’s public land policyAre public lands the solution to Arizona’s housing challenges?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 …
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