{"id":39961,"date":"2026-08-08T11:40:54","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=39961"},"modified":"2026-08-08T11:40:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:40:54","slug":"senators-introduce-legislation-to-combat-affordable-housing-crisis-strengthen-usps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2026\/08\/08\/senators-introduce-legislation-to-combat-affordable-housing-crisis-strengthen-usps\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators Introduce Legislation to Combat Affordable Housing Crisis, Strengthen USPS"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON<\/strong>\u20148\/7\/26 – U.S. Senators John Curtis (R-UT) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) introduced the Delivering Americans Affordable Homes Act<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>bipartisan legislation to address the shortage of affordable housing and funding shortfalls at the United States Postal Service (USPS). Amid record-breaking housing costs, the Senators\u2019 new bill would allow local communities to lease Postal Service property rights for new affordable housing construction. At the same time, this legislation protects against the sale of Postal Service assets, supports the rehabilitation and new construction of Postal facilities, and eases the Postal Service\u2019s critical financial constraints.<\/p>\n

\u201cUtah desperately needs more housing, and the Postal Service needs new sources of revenue; this commonsense legislation helps accomplish both,\u201d\u00a0said Senator Curtis.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cBy giving USPS the authority to lease underutilized property for housing development, we can put unused land to work, expand the housing supply, and strengthen an institution that millions of Americans rely on every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFar too many working Americans are faced with housing costs they simply cannot afford. At the same time, the Postal Service faces financial struggles that, if left unaddressed, will result in USPS running out of money to operate. With this legislation, we\u2019re not only bringing new, affordable homes to communities across the country, we\u2019re also working to shore up the Postal Service so that it can continue serving Americans for generations to come. It\u2019s a win-win,\u201d\u00a0said Senator Van Hollen<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Background:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Currently, USPS owns\u00a0about\u00a08,500 properties around the\u00a0United States,\u00a0many\u00a0of\u00a0which\u00a0are\u00a0located\u00a0in\u00a0places\u00a0suitable for housing construction and in areas with high housing demand.\u00a0According to a recent\u00a0analysis<\/a>\u00a0from Brookings, housing construction on postal property could build over 200,000 new homes and bring hundreds of millions of dollars to the Postal Service each year.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Delivering Americans Affordable Homes Act<\/em>\u00a0would\u00a0set guardrails on housing construction by USPS by allowing for\u00a0the\u00a0lease, but prohibiting\u00a0the\u00a0sale,\u00a0of\u00a0Postal Service\u00a0property for housing construction and ensuring USPS maintains discretion over its real estate assets.\u00a0The bill also\u00a0requires housing units constructed on Postal Service property to include tenant affordability restrictions on at least 20% of units, among other\u00a0provisions.<\/p>\n

A one-page summary of this bill is available\u00a0here<\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong>and the\u00a0<\/strong>full text of the legislation is available\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The legislation is supported by the Bipartisan Policy Center Action, Chamber of Progress, and Inclusive Abundance Action, among others.<\/p>\n

\u201cI applaud Senators Van Hollen and Curtis for their leadership in crafting this win-win legislation,\u201d\u00a0said Aaron Shroyer, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Brookings Metro.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cThis bill would enable the United States Postal Service to tap an underutilized asset\u2014its land\u2014to create a durable revenue source, while also adding much-needed housing to main streets and downtowns across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUSPS-owned sites could offer meaningful opportunities to add homes in communities where housing is badly needed,\u201d\u00a0said Ben Metcalf, Managing Director, Terner Center for Housing Innovation.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cTerner Center research has identified hundreds of USPS-owned sites that warrant closer evaluation for housing. While not every site will be feasible, underutilized postal properties could offer one solution to policymakers who are looking for ways to increase their affordable housing stock.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Postal Service owns 8,500 properties, many of them on prime, well-located land that cities and states need for housing,\u201d\u00a0said Colin Higgins, Executive Director of the National Housing Crisis Task Force.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cIn our Federal Housing Policy Agenda, the National Housing Crisis Task Force called for putting federal land to work this way, and it\u2019s good to see a bipartisan bill take up the idea. The hope is that cities and states can chart a path to build homes on underused public land while the Postal Service keeps its footprint and earns revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Postal Service is sitting on excess land that could be used for more than 200,000 new homes,\u201d\u00a0said Adam Kovacevich, Founder and CEO of Chamber of Progress.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cSen. Van Hollen and Sen. Curtis\u2019s legislation will turn underused postal sites and parking lots into housing in the places people want to live, and provide much needed revenue back to the Postal Service.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON\u20148\/7\/26 – U.S. Senators John Curtis (R-UT) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) introduced the Delivering Americans Affordable Homes Act,\u00a0bipartisan legislation to address the shortage of affordable housing and funding shortfalls at the United States Postal Service (USPS). Amid record-breaking housing costs, the Senators\u2019 new bill would allow local communities to lease Postal Service property rights […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39962,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39961\/revisions\/39962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}