ST. GEORGE —Sen. Mike Lee introduced a bill to Congress last Friday that would allow municipalities to apply to buy land overseen by the Bureau of Land Management to build affordable housing.

Lee’s office announced the rollout of the Helping Open Underutilized Space to Ensure Shelter or HOUSES Act, or HOUSES Act, through a press release that outlined the bill’s purpose.

“Supply is not meeting housing demand in Utah, and the federal government’s land ownership is a significant cause of our restricted housing stock,” Lee said in the press release. “The HOUSES Act will free federal land in a responsible manner to keep the dream and promise of Utah alive. This bill will help ensure Utah remains a place where families and communities can thrive, grow, and prosper.”

While the bill focuses on Utah, it also would aid states in the West with large amounts of land management by the BLM. Under the bill, states, counties or municipalities would be able to nominate specific parcels of federally-managed land for affordable housing and be purchased at a PILT (Payment In Lieu of Taxes)-ratioed price. Proceeds from the sales would go toward capital improvements in national parks, hazardous fuels reductions to prevent forest fires or the development of water infrastructure on public land.

The HOUSES also Act would create a new authority that would oversee the nomination of lands for purchase by local governments for housing development. Specially-designated public lands, such as national parts and monuments and wilderness areas and so forth, are not eligible for sale under the bill.

“The HOUSES Act would have a significant impact on the affordable housing crisis,” said Christopher M. McCormick, president and CEO of the Cedar City Chamber of Commerce. “The Cedar City Chamber of Commerce stands in support of the HOUSES Act and urges our legislators to implement this as expeditiously as possible. This is not only a good plan for Utah, but the nation as a whole, as this is becoming a nationwide problem.”

Among those supporting the bill in the Senate thus far are Sens. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and John Barrasso, R-Wyoming.

“Wyoming and the West are blessed with tremendous resources, including vast expanses of land,” Barrasso said in the release. “As more and more people move to places like Wyoming, the growing communities need options to expand housing for residents. The HOUSES Act will give many new options to state and local governments by allowing them to buy certain lands from the federal government for residential purposes. This has already been happening in Nevada. It makes sense for other public lands states to have the same opportunities.”

Land purchased from the BLM is required to be at least 85% dedicated to residential purposes and related community needs, with no more than 15% to be used for commercial development. With projects like low-income housing, as well as single and multifamily unit envisioned under the HOUSES Act, it also protects against the development of expensive second homes on the purchased parcels.

Currently, is it estimated that the United States is short over 5 million homes. This, among other factors, has caused housing costs to skyrocket and put once-affordable homes out of the reach of many people and families. In 2021, Utah saw a housing prices increase of 24.5%, according to Lee’s office.

Prior to the HOUSES Act’s official debut last week, an earlier draft was shared with the Washington City Council in early March.

“This gives us a way forward,” said Washington County Councilman Kurt Ivie, who introduced the bill to the City Council during its March 9 meeting. Ivie said Lee has been working on the bill for around four years, and with the bill close to completion, Lee’s office wanted input from the municipalities that could benefit from the bill in an effort to fine-tune it.

“I appreciate Sen. Lee including me in this critical discussion and for bringing forward the HOUSES Act, a bill that will give municipalities another avenue through which they can increase the supply of more affordable housing,” Ivie said in the press release. “I support this concept as one way to alleviate pressure on the housing market.”

The National Association of Counties also supports the bill.

“Now we just need Congress to pass the bill,” Ivie said while discussing the HOUSES Act with St. George News Monday.

With the bill focused on a way to help alleviate the housing crisis in Western states where public lands are plentiful, it’s possible members of congress from the East Coast, where public lands are rare by comparison, may not readily see the value in Lee’s proposal, Ivie said.

“We’ve just got to educate them the best we can,” he said.

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