Many housing insiders often characterize the topic of housing as a bipartisan one that is somewhat insulated from the acrimony of more divisive issues during a historically polarized political era.
This was mostly on display during the Senate confirmation hearing for Scott Turner to be the next secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The hearing included a lot of football jokes, owing to Turner’s former career as a NFL player.
There is an element of political theater to confirmation hearings, since the lawmakers who are politically aligned with the nominee tend to ask softer questions that offer them a platform to talk about their priorities in a more friendly exchange. Conversely, lawmakers who oppose an incoming president typically ask harder questions that can run the gamut from being legitimately substantive or designed to trip up the nominee on the public record.
All of these approaches were on display Thursday during Turner’s two-plus hours with members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. The hearing offered a more robust look at some of Turner’s guiding philosophies should he be confirmed as HUD secretary.
‘Maximizing’ the HUD budget
When asked by lawmakers of both parties about his priorities as HUD secretary, Turner mentioned several times that he will seek to “maximize” the department’s existing budget authority but stopped short of saying he would advocate for budget increases.
Republican committee members emphasized multiple times the need to assess the existing HUD budget and its effectiveness in expanding affordable housing access and limiting homelessness. Some lawmakers argued that “throwing money” at HUD programs has failed to turn the tides of crises stemming from both a lack of affordability and unhoused people.
Turner appeared to largely align with these sentiments, expressing multiple times that there is a need to get the nation’s “fiscal house in order,” particularly on the fronts of inflation and interest rates.
Democratic lawmakers expressed concern about the sentiments regarding the HUD budget and potential cuts to existing assistance programs. In an early exchange, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — the ranking member of the committee who already sent Turner a series of questions she’s seeking answers to prior to a confirmation vote — asked if he supports “additional federal investment in programs so that we can lower the cost of building affordable housing.” Turner replied that HUD’s existing budget must be directed toward more efficient outcomes.
“What I do support is maximizing the budget that we do have,” Turner began, before Warren interrupted him to ask if that meant he would not support additional investments. Turner reiterated the need to maximize existing investments to ensure current programs are having their intended impact.
“Well, I have to say, that gives me real pause,” Warren responded.
The topic of homelessness repeatedly came up, and Turner aimed to emphasize a desire to allow for more local intervention to alleviate homelessness problems.
Critics and homelessness advocates have expressed severe skepticism over Turner’s potential actions on this issue, with the National Homelessness Law Center (NHLC) and the National Coalition for the Homeless publicly calling for senators to vote “no” on his nomination. An NHLC representative said it has never before opposed a HUD secretary nominee.
Impacts of immigration
During the 2024 presidential campaign, President-elect Donald Trump spoke consistently about his belief that a rise in illegal immigration was driving up the cost of housing across the country. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle expressed concern for the potential impacts of immigration on housing.
“If you had ‘supply and demand for dummies,’ you would open up page one and say, ‘Well, if you add 12 million illegals into a country in a period of time that require housing, perhaps housing prices will go up,’” said Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio). “And yet, there’s incredible denial about that fact.”
Turner agreed that illegal immigration is having an impact on housing in the U.S., citing a HUD report from December. It named immigration — but not illegal immigration, specifically — as one of several causes driving the rate of homelessness to historic highs.
“When you have 12 to 20 million people coming across illegally to our country, it’s going to be a great burden on the economy, on housing, on homelessness [and] on health in our country,” Turner said. “And so as the report said, it is a huge burden, and that’s something that I think that we as a country, and you as a Congress, as a White House, have to work to eliminate so that we can take care of the American people.”
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) said he is in general agreement with the idea that illegal immigration places burdens on the country’s institutions. But he also expressed concerns for mixed-status families in his state where a U.S. citizen is married to an undocumented immigrant.
When asked if he would consider these kinds of families, since denying housing or evicting them would also impact Americans, Turner said he would focus primarily on enforcing existing laws.
“My job as HUD secretary will be to uphold the laws on the books, and sometimes we need to make hard decisions,” Turner said. “We don’t like to tear up families, but we have an obligation to serve the American people and uphold the laws on the books.”
Gallego reiterated that he hopes Turner understands the nuance of a mixed-status situation, and that an eviction for an undocumented spouse could result in the displacement of American citizens as well.
Other programs
Turner said he recognizes the value of Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), and vowed to work with Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) to see how they’re impacting the housing situation in his state and elsewhere.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) lambasted his former governor, Roy Cooper (D), for what he called ineffective deployments of Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds in the state, particularly after the onslaught of Hurricane Helene. Turner vowed to travel to the state to assess how these deployments could be improved.
On the topic of disaster recovery, Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-Nev.) asked Turner about recent statements made by Trump that suggest disaster relief funds for California could be withheld based on certain conditions he may want to impose.
“What I do commit to is when we look at this fund, if confirmed by the committee, how we get the resources out of the door to the families and communities that are in need so that they can rebuild,” Turner said. “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.”
Turner was also asked about how broader administration goals might interact with housing. On the topic of tariffs, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) asked if higher tariffs on lumber would increase the cost of construction and home prices. Turner said he was not interested in diving deeply into tariffs, since that will not be within his purview as HUD secretary.
“I think there’s a lot of increases to the cost of housing,” he said. “I don’t want to get into the tariff conversation, because obviously that is not my job. That’s the president and your job as Congress. But what I want to do is combat anything that raises the cost of housing, be it the cost of construction, fees [or] regulatory burdens.”
