Scott Turner, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development, testifies Thursday at a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, DC.
Rod Lamkey/AP
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Rod Lamkey/AP
WHO: Scott Turner
Nominated for: Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
You may know them from: Turner led a council that promoted investment and economic development in distressed communities during Trump’s first term. He also spent nine seasons in the NFL and was twice elected as a Texas state representative.
- Turner worked on education at the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-allied think tank.
- He most recently served as visionary director of multifamily housing developer JPI.
- Turner and his wife co-founded a faith-based organization non-profit focused on economic opportunities.
- He served as associate pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Texas.
What is this role for?: HUD administers rental assistance for millions of people who live in traditional public housing or have housing vouchers. The agency also helps low- and moderate-income families become home buyers, builds and repairs affordable housing, provides funds to house the homeless, and enforces fair housing laws.
Turner said HUD was failing in a mission that was ‘personal’ to him
Thursday’s hearing before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee was generally friendly, with plenty of football jokes, featuring Turner’s nine years in the NFL. Turner told senators that he overcame extreme adversity growing up in Texas and that HUD’s work focuses on “the things that my family and I have experienced over the years.” He said his wife grew up “on government help” and at one point his family took in an uncle who had become homeless.
Turner said the housing crisis leaves people struggling every day, and he pointed to the recent HUD survey that found record numbers of homeless people. “HUD, if you will, is failing in its most fundamental mission, and that must end,” he said.
He, however, provided few details to fix the agency, saying he would review each HUD program to see which ones are working and which are not. He has repeatedly said he would try to streamline the agency to make it more efficient.
Turner also said more HUD staff members should return to working in person in the office.
Most questions were about how to make housing more affordable
Responding to senators’ concerns, Turner said his own 24-year-old son also fears he will never be able to afford housing. But he rejected the idea that more federal investment would be needed to create more affordable housing.
“HUD has record funding,” he said, “and we’re still not meeting the need.” Instead, he said the agency needs to “maximize the investments we have” and streamline programs. Specifically, he said the Section 8 voucher program needs to be less burdensome and easier for landlords to use.
Turner also said burdensome regulations slow construction and increase the cost of housing, and that he would work with states to relax their own rules. He pointed to the high cost of construction materials as another problem, but declined to comment on whether Trump should raise tariffs on Canadian lumber.
He fired off a question when asked about Trump’s proposals to cut HUD’s budget.
Several Democratic senators pressed Trump’s proposals to slash HUD’s budget during his first term. Congress rejected them, but anti-poverty advocates fear cuts are more likely this time around, with fewer moderate Republicans in Congress and the new administration’s focus on cutting spending.
Turner has repeatedly declined to say whether he would oppose specific cuts, and he said his focus would be on helping people get off public assistance. But when asked at one point, he said he could imagine going to the president and making the case that, “Hey, these programs are successful.”
Business owners and the homeless
Turner refused to criticize the growing share of professional investors in real estate and said it was good to bring the private sector into the market.
He appears to support a longstanding federal homelessness policy that many Republicans want to end. It first provides housing and then helps people in voluntary drug or mental health treatment, called “wraparound services.” When asked about the policy, Turner said “these comprehensive services are vital.”
