Congress converts unused federal land into affordable housing—with 30-year rent caps
H.R. 3459 — Empty Lots to Housing Act · Filed by Kevin Mullin (D-CA) · 15 cosponsors · Introduced May 15, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill allows recipients of federal transportation funding who own land they no longer need to transfer it to local governments, nonprofits, or private developers for affordable housing—without repaying the federal government. In exchange, the developer must reserve at least 40% of units for families earning up to 60% of area median income at rents capped at 30% of their income, with 20% of those units reserved for families at 30% AMI or below, for 30 years. The goal is to convert underused federal-funded land into affordable housing.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is to unlock federal land for affordable housing by removing repayment obligations and imposing affordability covenants. It is fundamentally a housing-policy tool, not a transportation bill, despite being codified in title 23 (transportation law).
What the text implies
- The bill allows private for-profit developers to receive federal land at no cost if they meet affordability thresholds, creating a subsidy pathway for private real estate firms that may not have been the original intent of transportation funding.
- Placement in title 23 (transportation law) rather than housing law may obscure the bill's true purpose and make it harder for housing advocates and the public to track affordable housing policy.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
real estate development companies (for-profit); nonprofit housing developers; property management firms