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Scott Turner, an official during the first Trump administration, said that the country was not building enough homes and that the housing department was “failing at its most basic mission.”
- Jan. 16, 2025Updated 3:55 p.m. ET
Scott Turner, a former pro football player whom President-elect Donald J. 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, Mr. 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 Mr. Turner on whether he would oppose efforts to slash federal funding for housing programs, which Mr. Trump proposed during his first term. Mr. 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 Mr. Turner’s comments aligned with the broader goals that Mr. Trump has laid out for his second term. Mr. 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, Mr. 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,” Senator 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.”
