HUD Nominee Appears to Oppose the Department’s Core Mission of Helping the Disadvantaged
With most confirmation attention focused on the Donald Trump’s appointees under review for sexual assault complaints, focus on pursuing “enemies,” or outlandish health claims, we tend to overlook those who simply detest the agencies they are being asked to lead.
Thanks to ProPublica, we’re getting a look at Scott Turner, Trump’s designated Housing and Urban Development secretary, whose record over time is one that opposes efforts to aid the poor — which is the point of the agency.
It’s good that Trump has appointed someone, because to date, his sole solution to housing issues is his specious, blanket promise to deport migrants — apparently suggesting that will free up housing.
So he chose Turner, former NFL football player turned politician. As a Texas state legislator, Turner has repeatedly voted against protections for poor tenants and has called government assistance “one of the most destructive things for the family.” What he has done was to work as the head of a White House council during Trump’s first term to promote “opportunity zones” to spur investments in low-income neighborhoods by offering generous tax breaks.
In office, Turner supported a bill ensuring landlords could refuse apartments to applicants because they received federal housing assistance, opposed a bill to expand affordable rental housing, voted against funding public-private partnerships to support the homeless and against two bills that called merely to study homelessness among young people and veterans. He repeatedly has called welfare “dangerous, harmful” and “one of the most destructive things for the family.”
HUD’s Job
The core work of HUD, a $72-billion agency that serves as a backstop against homelessness for the nation’s poor, elderly and disabled, is to provide rental assistance to 2 million families, oversee 800,000 public housing units, fight housing discrimination, and promote more housing alternatives.
Much like those nominated to run health services, education, even the national security agencies to some extent, this is a Trump appointment of someone who seems opposed to the very mission of the agency getting a new leader. Unlike some of his brasher Cabinet appointees, Turner has been quiet about his intentions for change. So, ProPublica reviewed his legislative record, speeches, podcast appearances and sermons at the Plano, Texas, megachurch where he is a pastor.
Vox.com is among the news agencies with recent articles about the state of housing, writing about experiments to redefine who can qualify by income for public housing assistance. From many sources, there seems widespread agreement that housing costs generally are driving inflation complaints, that rents are rising faster than most other costs, that there is not enough housing available generally and in particular for those with limited income. Racial discrimination continues to hamper development, along with economic factors.
In short, availability of what we generally would include as affordable housing is a recognized problem that defies political party control and administrations. As we wrestle over appropriate public-private investment strategies, homelessness has boomed and anger is rising over the dissipation of The American Dream of home ownership for all.
Enter the Trump Agenda
So, here comes the Trump administration, which generally dislikes both regulation of the marketplace and more public spending for things like housing.
Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s outline for the Trump administration, suggests cutting public money for affordable housing, repealing regulations that fight housing discrimination, increasing work requirements and adding time limits for rental assistance and eliminating anti-homelessness policies. That section was written by Ben Carson, Trump’s first HUD secretary and a mentor to Turner; Carson pushed to end an anti-segregation rule, add work requirements for housing assistance and make it harder to prove housing discrimination.
Turner grew up poor in Texas, and he has reflected darkly about family reliance on public assistance programs. After a football career, Turner worked as an intern for California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter and was elected to the Texas House in 2012. While there, he voted against bills supporting foreclosure prevention programs, or pushing public housing authorities to rehabilitate property, and require drug testing for poor families applying for government assistance. He supported some modest housing assistance measures, such as bills helping housing developments for seniors and in rural areas seek low-income housing tax credits.
Turner is an associate pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church, where he has sermonized against the “perverse incentives created by the government and the welfare system, which in turn creates an epidemic of fatherlessness in our country.” He has been active in promoting Christian influence in public policy.
In promoting opportunity zones, Turner has praised the program as a way to improve neighborhoods with high poverty and unemployment rates. Reporting by ProPublica and others have found those zones drew congressional scrutiny for exploitation by wealthy, politically connected investors, including a one Christian group with which Turner has been associated.
Since 2020, Turner started a nonprofit that promotes “Christ-centered reading enhancement programs” for children and helps people get driver’s licenses. He also became “chief visionary officer” at the multifamily housing developer JPI.
Turner probably will be considered confirmable to lead HUD, since there are no scandals in his background. But it is another example of Trump turning to someone to undercut the basic mission of the agency meant to help.
