The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs held a confirmation hearing on January 16 for HUD Secretary Nominee Scott Turner. President Donald Trump nominated Mr. Turner to lead the department in November of last year.
Secretary-nominee Turner’s career began in the National Football League, where he played nine seasons before turning to politics. Mr. Turner ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during the first Trump administration, where he was responsible for coordinating federal agencies to help attract private investors to “Opportunity Zones” (OZs). Currently, he chairs the Center for Education Opportunity at the America First Policy Institute.
Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-SC) opened the hearing with brief remarks welcoming his new colleagues before turning to Senator John Thune (R-TX), who introduced and endorsed the Secretary nominee, stating “[Turner’s] business acumen, his experience in government, especially with the first Trump administration, and his demonstrated ability to use housing and development to create brighter prospects for his fellow Americans makes him eminently qualified to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development.”
Chair Scott’s opening statement highlighted the importance of safe, stable housing, and lamented the increased cost of rent and mortgages, the rise in the number of people experiencing homelessness, and the continued gap in homeownership between Black and white households in the U.S., noting that “[Black homeownership levels] have not changed substantially since 1986, when the Fair Housing Act was passed.”
The Chair also promoted the Opportunity Zone (OZ) program as “a very successful program” that has provided “over $50 billion in private investment…[to] devastated communities, typically majority minority, seeing revitalization and rehabilitation become a reality without gentrifying those communities.” However, the impact of the OZ program, which began in 2017, has not been extensively evaluated, and because it is a newer program it is impossible to know the longer-term effects of OZs on communities and residents. What evidence does exist so far seems to be mixed at best.
In her opening statement, Committee Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) called on her colleagues to “make some big changes and really move the needle” on affordable housing. “The federal government needs to be a good partner, investing in affordable housing and spurring local innovation to cut red tape. And we can and should do even more,” she stated.
Secretary-nominee Turner’s opening statement highlighted his personal and professional experiences and his hope to “[work] together…to better the American dream for the American people” before criticizing HUD for “failing in its most basic mission.”
“In this moment, we’re not just talking about fixing what’s broken, but about continuing and expanding the policies from the first Trump administration,” said Turner.
There was widespread agreement from Committee members that the nation is experiencing a pervasive affordable housing and homelessness crisis, and that state and local zoning reforms would be key to driving up the supply of housing. However, zoning reforms alone are not sufficient for the private market to be able to afford to construct, operate, and maintain housing that is deeply affordable to enough for renters with the lowest incomes. For this reason, federal investments in affordable housing resources are necessary.
However, Mr. Turner would not commit to pushing against proposed cuts to HUD’s budget, including cuts to programs like Housing Choice Vouchers (HCVs) and the national Housing Trust Fund (HTF), which have been proven effective in helping households afford rent and increasing the supply of deeply affordable housing, including permanent supportive housing for people who have experienced homelessness.
“First we have to get our fiscal house in order,” said Turner in response to a question from Ranking Member Warren about whether he would support additional federal investments in affordable housing development programs. “What I do support is maximizing the budget that we do have and making sure the programs that we do have are meeting the intended need and serving those they are intended to serve…HUD’s budget is nearly $70 billion at this point, and we’re still not meeting the need that we’re supposed to be meeting.”
“Which might mean that we need more money there,” countered Ranking Member Warren. Currently, only one in four households whose income qualifies them for housing assistance actually receive assistance, leaving the other 75% of people in need to continue struggling to afford the cost of rent. The nation also faces a shortage of 7.3 million affordable, available units for the nation’s 11 million extremely low-income renters – those whose incomes are at or below 30% of area median income, or below the federal poverty line (whichever is higher).
Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Andy Kim (D-NJ) discussed HUD’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program, which provides funding to disaster-impacted communities to address long-term housing and infrastructure needs. These funds play a vital role in helping communities recover in the wake of a disaster, but because the CDBG-DR program is not permanently authorized by Congress, funds from this program are significantly delayed in reaching impacted communities. Permanently authorizing the CDBG-DR program is a top priority for NLIHC and our Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition.
When asked if he would commit to helping ensure CDBG-DR is permanently authorized, and to creating an efficient process for getting HUD’s recovery funds to impacted communities, Turner stated he would “commit to…[looking] at this fund, how do we get the resources out of the door to the families and communities that are in need so that they can rebuild, because that’s very important. That would be a top priority for me when it comes to disaster recovery funds that have been appropriated by Congress.”
Concerningly, Mr. Turner also committed to pushing forward harmful policies that were proposed under the previous Trump administration, including work requirements for recipients of HUD assistance and evicting families with “mixed-status” immigration statuses, in which one or more members of the family is an undocumented immigrant. These families receive prorated assistance, meaning the undocumented members of the family are not included in HUD’s determination for assistance (for example, a family of four with one undocumented member would receive assistance as if they are a family of three).
When asked directly by Senator Lisa Blunt-Rochester (D-DE) whether he supports work requirements for housing programs, Turner replied “yes ma’am. I think it’s good. I think we should encourage people to work.” The overwhelming majority of recipients of HUD housing assistance are already in the workforce, or are students, people with disabilities that prohibit them from maintaining employment, or people in a caregiving role to a person with a disability or young child. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) asked the HUD Secretary nominee his stance on evicting mixed-status households, to which Turner responded “I know oftentimes you have to make hard decisions because we do not like to tear up families, but we have an obligation to serve the American people and uphold the laws on the books.”
NLIHC’s Interim President and CEO Renee Willis issued a statement following the hearing, noting that “if the past is prologue, we can expect a number of policies that are antithetical to our goal of providing affordable housing for people with extremely low incomes, given what we saw in the first four years of the Trump administration.”
Watch a recording of the hearing and access testimonies here.