In March, the U.S. Department of Interior set up a joint task force with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to identify public land that’s fit for building homes. The Interior oversees more than 500 million acres of public land and says much of it is suitable for residential use.

But the nonprofit research group Headwaters Economics found only a slice of it – about 1.5 million acres – is practical and safe for development. The group estimates that’s enough land to build about 700,000 new homes near communities with unmet housing needs. Most of that land is near towns and cities in Mountain West states, including Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona.

Study author Megan Lawson said any housing that’s built on public land should have permanent affordability guarantees, such as tax incentives or community land trusts.

“Because,” she continued, “if we just add more houses, especially in these really high-demand communities, we are just going to be contributing to sprawl, rising cost of living, rising infrastructure costs.”

Lawson added that wildfire and drought risk should also be calculated in any efforts to create new housing developments.

“So much of our Western public lands is in areas of high wildfire risk,” she said. “And so, we need to make sure that we're not putting people at risk.”

To that end, Lawson said any new housing built on public land in the Mountain West should consider wildfire- and drought-resistant practices, like codes that reduce properties’ water use and create defensible space.

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.