The Healey administration has sought to make it easier to build in-law units, to put in place a transaction fee on $1 million homes to help pay for affordable units and to strengthen first-time homebuyer programs.The latest tack: selling excess state-owned land for new housing.

The plan, announced Monday, involves offering 450 acres for sale that the administration says has the capacity for 3,500 new housing units. It would be a step toward what the administration has set for a goal of creating or fixing up 65,000 homes statewide over the next five years.

Included in the 17 sites are an office complex in the West End and the 260-bed Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Franklin Park.

The state is looking to relocate the Shatttuck to the South End.

The office complex, known as the Hurley and Lindemann buildings, was previously eyed for a life sciences lab and other uses before the state scrapped the plan.

Other sites include the former Lowell Superior Court site and MCI-Concord, a correctional facility where the state ended operations last year, as well as spare land at two college campuses, Bridgewater State University and Middlesex Community College.

Healey’s office said it expects to make 17 sites available to developers next year, mostly through requests for proposals and others through auctions.

“These 450 acres will be turned into thousands of new homes that families, seniors and workers can actually afford,” Healey said in a statement. “We are already getting shovels in the ground for thousands of these units, and we’ll continue to work closely with several developers to get even more projects started.”

The state’s efforts to lessen housing cost burdens are facing stiff odds, even with a five-year, $5-billion housing bill that passed last year. That’s due to a declining pace of new home construction and a median home price that’s the third highest in the country, behind only California and Hawaii.

A series of residential projects on surplus state land are already underway. That includes a third and final phase of new home construction at the former Boston State Hospital campus in Mattapan, bringing an additional 466 units. Others include the former Veterans Home in Chelsea and Salem State University’s south campus, where permitting is being sought for more than 350 units.

This article first appeared in the Boston Business Journal.