Trump’s housing pick emphasizes need to build more affordable housing
WASHINGTON — Scott Turner, a former pro football player whom President-elect Donald Trump has picked to lead the Housing and Urban Development Department, emphasized the need to boost the supply of affordable housing and reduce regulatory barriers during his confirmation hearing on Thursday.
Testifying before the Senate Banking Committee, Turner said the agency was “failing at its most basic mission.”
“We have a housing crisis in our country,” he said. “We need millions of homes.”
Several Democratic senators grilled Turner on whether he would oppose efforts to slash federal funding for housing programs, which Trump proposed during his first term. Turner did not commit to specific actions or voice support for increasing the agency’s funding, but repeatedly said that he would want to maximize “the budget that we do have” and examine the effectiveness of current programs.
Many of Turner’s comments aligned with the broader goals that Trump has laid out for his second term. Turner said it would be a top priority of his to remove any “burdensome” regulations that were impeding the construction of new homes. He also said he thought it was important for the agency’s employees to work in the office, which would “empower them to serve the American people.”
If confirmed, Turner would oversee an agency that provides vouchers and other rental assistance to millions of low-income households, distributes billions to help the homeless and enforces fair housing laws.
“Scott Turner agreed we have a housing affordability crisis in our country,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs committee, said in a statement. “President-elect Trump claims he wants to lower housing costs. But I want to hear more about their plans to actually do that, including investments to boost housing construction, using the department’s tools to bring down costs, and cracking down on private equity and corporate landlords who jack up prices to make a profit.”
Affordable housing advocates and housing policy experts have expressed mixed thoughts on Trump’s decision to nominate Turner. He has been scrutinized in recent weeks over his previous comments about government assistance and his voting record as a state representative in Texas.
Turner, a cornerback who played in the NFL for nine seasons, served as a Republican in the Texas House of Representatives from 2013 to 2017. During that time, he supported a bill that would allow landlords to refuse apartments to applicants because they received federal housing assistance and opposed another that would fund public-private partnerships to support the homeless, a ProPublica report found. Turner has also previously called some welfare programs “dangerous.”
“He has consistently opposed meaningful housing policies,” said Renee M. Willis, interim president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
At the hearing Thursday, Turner said that he was “willing to look at” any programs that help people climb the economic ladder, and that his goal would be to help people “get off of government assistance and to be self-sustainable.” He also said he supported attaching work requirements to housing assistance programs.
To combat homelessness, Turner said, it is important for the federal government to work with local communities and faith-based organizations to advance programs that are effective.
After making a long-shot bid for speaker of the Texas House, Turner did not seek reelection. He later worked on a federal initiative to drive investment to economically distressed areas as executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term.
Turner has previously called Ben Carson, the housing secretary in Trump’s first term, a “great mentor.”
“I’m delighted with the nomination,” Carson said in an interview. “He worked very well with us when I was the HUD secretary and was the major driver of the opportunity zones.”
Most recently, Turner has been the chief visionary officer for JPI, a company that develops multifamily properties in Texas and Southern California, and the chair of the Center for Education Opportunity at the America First Policy Institute, a think tank stocked heavily with former Trump officials. Turner is also an associate pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas.
Some housing experts said Turner’s experience at a company that builds multifamily housing could mean that he has a strong understanding of the challenges that developers face.
“Having that lens could be potentially useful as they consider ways to adjust or reform federal regulations,” said David Garcia, policy director at Up for Growth, a Washington-based research group focused on the housing shortage.
David M. Dworkin, president of the National Housing Conference, said he thought Turner was qualified for the job, and he was enthusiastic about the potential for the incoming administration to take a closer look at regulatory barriers.
“I think he has exactly the right attitude,” Dworkin said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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