Easing Regulatory Burden in Housing Market a Top Priority for HUD, Turner Says

Scott Turner, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, testifies before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 16, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Former NFL player Scott Turner described easing housing development “regulatory burdens” as his top priority if he were to lead the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), during testimony before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs in Washington on Jan. 16.

Turner’s confirmation hearing largely featured questions on the nation’s current housing affordability and availability crisis. He discussed his commitment to maximizing HUD’s current record-breaking fiscal year 2025 budget of $72.6 billion, ways to reduce housing development costs, and the impacts of illegal immigration on homelessness.

Turner also fielded questions on President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed import tariffs and a vow that Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy made to lay off 75 percent of the federal workforce during his presidential campaign.

The former pro-football athlete, who also served as the executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term, highlighted that the United States saw an all-time record high of homelessness in 2024.

“That’s a national embarrassment and something that cannot continue,” Turner said. “We have a housing crisis in our country, where American people and families are struggling every day.

“HUD is failing at its most basic mission.”

HUD released data last month showing the nation hitting its highest level of homelessness yet, with more than 770,000 people living in this status on a single night in January 2024. The number is an 18 percent increase from the year prior and is likely an undercount, according to the agency.

Turner said he would call on HUD employees to resume in-office work for those working remotely, prioritize building housing “of all kinds,” and continue as well as expand policies from Trump’s first administration, including Opportunity Zones.

These zones are economically distressed communities that state governors can nominate for certification by the Treasury secretary and may receive preferential tax treatment for new investments.

Turner worked with Opportunity Zones during the first Trump administration.

Easing ‘Regulatory Burdens’

Critically, if confirmed, Turner’s top priority at HUD will be to ease the “regulatory burden” in the housing market, lowering development costs and increasing construction speeds.

“We want to make it more flexible and easier for developers to build affordable workforce attainable housing across our country,” he said. “Because right now, we’re not meeting that demand.”

Turner, a developer himself, gave several examples of “regulatory burdens” that make home construction costly.

“Permitting fees, inspection fees, zoning difficulties on a local level—every locality is unique in their needs—but these are some of the things that we see as developers and builders that are hindering developers from building affordable and workforce housing and regulatory reform,” Turner said.

He also cited data showing that regulations account for, on average, 40.6 percent of the total development costs of multifamily homes and roughly 23.8 percent of the development costs of single-family homes.

Maximizing Record-High HUD Budget

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) asked Turner if he would pursue additional federal investments for programs seeking to lower the cost of building affordable housing.

Turner said HUD’s outsized budget, which is now more than $70 billion, needs to maximize its investments before pursuing more.

Warren said Turner’s response gave her “real pause,” as she feels additional funding is needed to close the “terrible gap of affordable housing,” including for projects such as the HOME Investment Partnerships Program.

That program allocates formula grants to both states and localities to fund building, buying, and rehabilitating affordable housing for “rent or homeownership or providing direct rental assistance to low-income people.”

Turner said he would consider the HOME program at HUD but that the agency’s massive budget is not “meeting the need that [it] was supposed to be meeting.”

Illegal Immigration, Homelessness

Returning to HUD’s report of record homelessness last year, Turner said that illegal immigration is a factor.

“When you have 12 million to 20 million people coming across illegally ... [it] is going to be a great burden on [the] economy, on housing, on homelessness, on health in our country,” he said.

Turner said the government has to prioritize taking care of American citizens and families.

“It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s not just what we’re called to do, but it’s the law,” Turner said. “Even right now, we are not serving the amount of American people, American families that we’ve been called to serve.”

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) asked if that also meant evicting mixed-status families—those with a U.S. citizen child and an illegal immigrant parent—from federal housing.

“Oftentimes, we 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,” Turner replied.

Tariffs, Potential Workforce Layoffs

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) raised the topic of Trump’s proposed import tariff increases while asking Turner about his commitment to lower the cost of homebuilding materials. The senator mentioned how Trump increased tariffs on lumber in his first term, before President Joe Biden raised them even further.

Van Hollen said he supports targeted tariffs but worries about Trump’s promises to increase tariffs on all imports, which would impact home development costs.

“Would you agree that if you increase the tariffs on lumber, which is a major input to the cost of housing, that increases the cost of housing?” he asked.

Turner said he believes many factors contribute to housing cost increases but didn’t directly answer the question.

“I don’t want to get into tariff conversation because, obviously, that is not my job. That’s the president’s,” he said.

“What I want to do is combat anything that raises the cost of housing, be it like the cost of construction, be it fees, be it regulatory burdens, that’s what I’m focused on.”

Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) asked Turner about Ramaswamy’s 2024 presidential campaign proposal to lay off upward of 75 percent of government workers to lower the budget. She asked if Turner would support firing 75 percent of HUD’s employees if DOGE pursues that effort.

“What I do support is encouraging people to do the job that they’ve been called to do,” Turner replied. “But also, I don’t want to encourage people to do something I’m not willing to do. I will take the lead in that.

“Having the best people at the right time to do the job is my goal.”