HousingWireHousingWire
As the dust settles from the confirmation hearing of Scott Turner to serve as the new secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are logging their reactions in official statements and social media posts ahead of an expected Senate vote.
While reactions largely fall within partisan expectations, Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike appear poised to work with the incoming leadership at HUD to tackle the housing challenges across the country that were discussed during the hearing.
In a statement to HousingWire, Senate banking committee ranking member Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said she was encouraged by at least one of Turner’s stances, but she also requires more specifics.
“Scott Turner agreed we have a housing affordability crisis in our country,” Warren said. “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.”
In a social media post, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) described the confirmation hearings for Turner, Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi and U.S. Treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent as “slam dunks.”
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) issued a press release saying he had “secured a commitment” from Turner to assess the housing crisis in Cleveland. During the hearing, Moreno claimed during an exchange that “if we put illegals in those [Cleveland housing] projects, we’d be sanctioned by the [United Nations] for human rights violations.”
Sens. Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-Nev.) and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) also posted on social media platform X shortly after the hearing concluded. Cortez Masto shared a clip of her exchange with Turner, in which she said she “pushed Scott Turner to commit to protecting [veteran home] investments because I know what they mean for Nevadans.”
Blunt Rochester said she wanted to press Turner “on whether he supports restrictions that would make critical housing programs harder to access for those who need them,” she said. “Unfortunately, he does.”
HousingWire reached out to the office of Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), chairman of the banking committee, for his reaction to Turner’s hearing but did not receive an immediate response. Scott did post a clip of his opening statement from the hearing where he called Turner “the change we need at HUD.”
In an interview with HousingWire, Scott Olson, executive director of the Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA), said his organization is “extremely interested in and sympathetic to the perspective that Mr. Turner is offering, that we need to do something about housing production.”
Interest rate and home-price increases in tandem illustrate a mismatch between supply and demand, Olson said. Federal Housing Administration (FHA) activities aiming to provide homeownership assistance to different communities will be “an important focus point for the supply/demand equation, that FHA remains a strong force for providing first-time homeownership opportunities,” he added.
The Senate looks poised to act quickly on nominations. Olson expressed that this is important and an encouraging sign as the second Trump administration will start its work on Monday.
Earlier this week, a letter supporting Turner’s nomination was co-signed by 23 housing trade groups. These include the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the American Land Title Association (ALTA), the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) and the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI).
“With the U.S. in the midst of a housing affordability crisis, HUD is poised to play a crucial role in addressing our nation’s housing shortage and ensuring all Americans have access to safe, decent, and affordable homes,” the letter stated. “Mr. Turner understands the value of strengthening public-private partnerships and collaborating with stakeholders to expand the supply of housing.”
