“I sit before you today as a nominee to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, but deep down, committee members, this opportunity is also personal to me,” Turner began, telling lawmakers a little bit about his background growing up in Richardson, Texas, “and before that, in Plano, Texas,” with his parents.
“I worked as a dishwasher at Spring Creek Barbecue, which is one of my claims to fame. Early on in my childhood, my family was broken due to divorce and later moving into a blended family. I love my mother, I love my father and all my brothers and sisters. But when you go through a divorce, many would say the odds are now stacked against you,” he said, telling lawmakers that he personally overcame “extreme adversity going against the status quo in attending and graduating college.”
“In spite of being drafted in the seventh round of the NFL, which is the last round for those that don’t know, I was blessed to go on to have a successful career in the National Football League. I went on to serve in the Texas legislature, which was a great honor for me, and work in the White House to advance the Opportunity Zone Initiative, and I sit before you today, committee members, humbled by the call to serve my country as a member of President Trump’s Cabinet,” he continued, acknowledging the countless Americans who have also overcome adversity in their lives.
“I share my story because I think it’s important for you to know my heart of who I am, and also because the challenges that HUD faces are vital to our nation as well as personal to me. These are not just things that I heard about or read about. These are things that my family and I have experienced through the years, and I believe that that perspective would be very beneficial to HUD as I become the leader, if confirmed by this committee,” he said, identifying HUD’s mission as creating “strong and sustainable communities and support quality affordable housing serving the most vulnerable of our nation.”
“Yet as we sit here, we have a housing crisis in our country. We have the American people and families that are struggling every day. We have a homelessness crisis in our country,” he said.
Ultimately, Turner said HUD “is failing at its most basic mission, and that has to come to an end the point in time.” He cited a report from December 27 that revealed there were “770,000 Americans homeless on one night in January of 2024 — 770,000 plus people, many of which are families, were homeless.”
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“This cannot continue as a country. We’re not building enough housing. We need millions of homes. All kinds of homes — multi-family, single family, duplex, condo, manufacturing, housing, you name it. We need housing in our country for individuals and families to have a roof over the head and to call home,” he said, adding that the HUD workforce needs to come back to work to the office.
“In this moment, we’re not just talking about fixing what’s broken, but about continuing and expanding the policies from the first Trump administration,” Turner added.
Trump, in his announcement of Turner in November, touted his work as the First Executive Director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council (WHORC), “helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities.”
“Those efforts, working together with former HUD Secretary, Ben Carson, were maximized by Scott’s guidance in overseeing 16 Federal Agencies which implemented more than 200 policy actions furthering Economic Development. Under Scott’s leadership, Opportunity Zones received over $50 Billion Dollars in Private Investment!” he added.
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