House bill aims to turn unused or underused government facilities into affordable housing – GWC Mag

A bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives seeks to repurpose underutilized government facilities for residential projects. The Government Facilities to Affordable Housing Conversion Act, which Reps. Adam Schiff and Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., introduced April 2, would mandate an annual assessment of federal real estate holdings to determine their suitability for residential conversion. 

Within a year of enactment, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration and the director of the Office of Management and Budget, would be required to submit an annual housing conversion report to Congress. The report would examine whether federal real estate is being optimized, if it should be reduced and if it could be converted to affordable housing units, the bill says.  

“By repurposing government buildings that have outlived their original use, we’re not only making efficient use of our resources, but also increasing the supply of affordable housing,” Rep. Schiff said in a news release. 

The legislation also seeks to bolster an existing HUD grant program, the Exploring Office to Residential Conversions Program, by allocating $1.75 million to it annually from fiscal years 2025 through 2030. In addition, it would establish a new grant program to help state and local governments convert properties into residential rental projects that must meet certain criteria for at least 30 years. Those requirements include ensuring that 20% or more of the residential units are occupied by households with incomes not exceeding 50% of the area’s median income.

The proposal reiterates concerns raised in recent congressional hearings. At a hearing last June, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., said nearly 8,000 federal properties have “stood completely unused,” while 898 federally-owned buildings were underutilized, as of fiscal year 2021. At another hearing in September, Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., cited the lack of federal office space utilization as a long-standing issue exacerbated by remote work, while Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., pointed to resources being wasted on heating, cooling and maintaining underutilized federal buildings. Earlier in 2023, the U.S. Government Accountability Office had found that federal agencies were grappling with excess space. Seventeen of 24 agencies were using an estimated 25% or less of their headquarters buildings’ capacity in the first quarter of 2023, the GAO said.

The new legislation has garnered support from the California State Association of Counties and the National Association of Realtors, according to the news release from Rep. Schiff’s office.

The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Financial Services for further consideration.