HUD Secretary Scott Turner Tackling Homelessness With Heart, Hope, and Biblical Values

DALLAS, Texas – While tariffs and other issues may dominate the headlines, the new head of Housing and Urban Development is working on a different mission. HUD Secretary Scott Turner's priority focuses on getting rid of homelessness and building more affordable housing nationwide.

We caught up with him at Our Calling, a faith-based outreach for the homeless in his hometown of Dallas, Texas. We discussed his work and his hope for America.

Secretary Turner explained the purpose of the Department of Housing and Urban Development:

"HUD's mission is to serve the most vulnerable people in our country. We meet people right where they are. Housing is not political. Housing is not Republican or Democrat. It impacts every individual and family in America. And I love that. And so we are mission-minded at HUD—to serve those that we have been called to serve, not only in housing but in homelessness, in disaster recovery. And our mission is not to grow the amount of people that are on government subsidies but to take people off government subsidies—to help them get skills and workforce so that they are self-sustaining."

On the homeless crisis, Turner tells CBN News that government is not the answer and should play the role of facilitator to nonprofit organizations like Our Calling to help solve the problem.

"There's an 18-percent increase in homelessness in our country right now. We want to decrease that. We want to eradicate homelessness. We want to help people not only get on their feet but live a life of sustainability."

And according to Secretary Turner, providing shelter is not enough.

"When you think about homelessness, a lot of times people think about the shelter—which it is—but it's so much more. We want to look at it from a holistic standpoint. What about the mental health standpoint? What's the root of homelessness? What about addiction services? And so not only is it the shelter, but it's also: how do we help people not only get off the streets, but to get rehabilitated, to get treated? What about the faith issue? What about the family issue? And not just to stay in the homeless shelter, but to help them to be on a trajectory of self-sustainability."

That requires a lot of effort, particularly in an era of DOGE. Turner launched a task force within HUD to find waste, fraud, and abuse. He explains it is helping to create more efficiency in the agency.

"At HUD, we're identifying the waste, fraud, and abuse—for that, $1.9 billion, for instance. We'd be obligated to return that asset back to the Treasury so it can be used for other federal expenditures to serve the American people. And so we have a great working relationship. We want to be faithful stewards of the taxpayer dollars."

In order to do that, Turner believes in fulfilling President Trump's agenda of deregulation, stating:

"Regulations have hindered and crippled the housing affordability issue in our country. There are so many barriers to building affordable housing. And so we want to reduce the amount of regulations—both from a federal standpoint and at every state and local level—to unleash the creativity, to unleash the capital, to unleash the ingenuity of private developers around our country."

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Beyond removing regulations, Turner is working together with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on a task force to find more federal land that can be used to develop affordable housing.

"Now, this doesn't mean building on our beautiful national parks. But there are about 400 million-plus acres of underutilized federal lands that were identified. And we're looking at that to see how we can help with the housing affordability crisis. We need about 7 million units of housing. That's substantial. And we have been very creative under the President's leadership."

Under President Trump's first term in office, Turner was chosen to lead the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council. In that former role, he helped develop Opportunity Zones—a program he will continue as HUD Secretary.

"The expansion and continuation of Opportunity Zones is very important. Opportunity Zones, over the last five years since their inception, have realized about $84 billion in capital and private investments. One study showed nearly 1 million people were lifted out of poverty in those zones."

Secretary Turner knows the value of teamwork between government and private entities. Before coming to Washington, he served two terms in the Texas Legislature, played nine seasons in the NFL, and held the role of Associate Pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas.

His faith is also openly displayed on the homepage of HUD's website, with his statement:

"God blessed us with this great nation, and together, we can increase self-sufficiency and empower Americans to climb the economic ladder toward a brighter future."

CBN News asked the Secretary to share his hope for America and how his faith propels that hope.

"The Bible says, 'Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.' And my hope is that we all recognize the sovereignty of Christ. We all recognize the blessings of God, the grace of God, and that we live in the greatest country on Earth. It is our responsibility to give Him honor and praise and to represent that well across this great country."