Mike Lee's record shows he's no affordable housing advocate

Senator Mike Lee of Utah has claimed for years now that he wants to address the affordable housing crisis in the West by forcing the federal government to sell off national public lands. But he has kept those who work on housing affordability at arms length and pushed legislation that advocates say would make it harder for Americans to access affordable homes.

In 2016, Lee introduced the Welfare Reform and Upward Mobility Act, which would have cut overall affordable housing-related funding in half over a decade. He has also introduced legislation aimed at undermining federal fair housing programs.

Tara Rollins, who has served as the executive director of the Utah Housing Coalition for 20 years, said she has never been able to get a meeting with Lee, only his staff. “I don’t know who he’s talked to about affordable housing,” she told Public Domain. “I don’t know anybody who’s met with him.”

While Lee has few allies in the affordable housing world, he has strong ties to real estate developers. The real estate industry has given Lee a combined $1.03 million over his career, the fourth highest of any industry, including $665,270 in the 2024 election cycle.

Denver Keep Parks Public podcast up now!

Aaron interviews Scott Fitzwilliams, former supervisor of the White River National Forest in Colorado; Kelly Nordini, CEO of Conservation Colorado; and Kara Matsumoto, public lands director at the Conservation Lands Foundation, about threats to Colorado’s public lands posed by the Trump administration and Congress—as well as how the public can fight back.

Join us at the Keep Parks Public tour stops next week in Salt Lake City and Grand Junction for more live podcast tapings! 

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Quote of the day

It's quite apparent to me that this is a deliberate dismantling of the public land institutions that this country's had for 130 years... I think public lands are one of the great experiments in democracy. Nowhere else in the world does this. We have set aside land in the public trust, owned for everyone, and we're messing with that.”

—Scott Fitzwilliams, former supervisor of the White River National Forest, The Landscape

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