HUD Secretary Scott Turner is grilled by Congresswoman Maxine Waters

HUD Secretary Scott Turner is grilled by Congresswoman Maxine Waters

Congresswoman Maxine Waters said, “It seems HUD Secretary Scott Turner made the housing crisis worse”

By Lynda Carson - January 23, 2026

On January 21, 2026, during a full Committee hearing entitled, “Oversight of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Housing Administration,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner was grilled by Congresswoman Maxine Waters after dodging her and her questions, during 2025.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters publicly roasted HUD Secretary Scott Turner (ex-football player & preacher) on January 21, for his apparent incompetence in running the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Before being nominated by the convicted felon President Donald J. Trump, Turner had no experience in running a huge federal agency like HUD, or any other agency, and reportedly Secretary Turner has sabotaged HUD since he became HUD Secretary.

That’s right. Recently, HUD Secretary Turner was accused of creating chaos all across the nation after HUD temporarily pauses a homelessness funding overhaul, that would have resulted in 170,000 households in losing their housing, just ahead of a court hearing.

According to Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, she said, “Instead of Meeting the National Housing Crisis With Urgency or Even Competence, It Seems that Secretary Turner Has Made This Crisis Even Worse, and Even Trump Knows It.”

On the same day that Congresswoman Maxine Waters grilled Secretary Turner in a hearing, in a testimony before the full Committee, as an excuse as to why he wanted to dump 170,000 households from their HUD subsidized housing in the Continuum of Care programs in the dead of winter, in part HUD Secretary Turner declared, “My uncle is a good example of how we have other options besides forcing homeless Americans into permanent dependence on government. He was homeless, broken, drug-ridden, and had a debilitating disease. But my family and I took care of him, and made sure he got the wraparound services he needed. How would he have been better helped by being thrown into permanent public housing with no long-term treatment?”

That’s right. HUD Secretary Scott Turner is blaming his uncle as a reason to dump 170,000 poor people on the cold hearted streets of America from the Continuum of Care programs!

U.S. House Committee on Financial Services

In a release from the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services on January 21, 2026, in part it says, “Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, delivered the following statement during a full Committee hearing entitled, “Oversight of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Housing Administration.”


“Mr. Chairman, after countless calls for hearings, warnings, and questions from Committee Democrats, I am glad this day has finally come.

Secretary Turner, we had a good meeting in my office, and we spoke about a lot of things.

You told us you were taking inventory at HUD so it could better achieve its goals. I told you I was going to work with my staff and take a look at the inventory you have taken. Well, this inventory that you have taken as HUD Secretary, I found that it was completely inadequate.



Homelessness is surging and high housing prices are locking millions out of homeownership.

Instead of meeting the national housing crisis with urgency, or competence, it seems that you have made this crisis even worse, and even Trump knows it.

 Now, from day one, you have worked from the inside to weaken HUD and America’s housing supply.

And I don’t know, and hopefully through the questioning we will find out whether or not it was you or Elon Musk or what was going on that you fired so many employees.



Immediately after taking office, you halted fair housing and civil rights investigations, making discrimination in housing as acceptable as it was in the 1940’s.



Next, I’m really, really surprised, you shuttered regional and field offices, stripping families of the support they need to stay or get housed. 

It looks as if, and I came over, if you can recall, I came over, in a little protest action, and tried to get in touch with you, but didn’t realize it was as bad as it is.



You terminated more than 780 HUD employees, including public servants whose expertise is essential to administering housing programs, enforcing civil rights laws, and preventing homelessness.



As a matter of fact, it has been described to me that HUD is only a shadow of what it should be.

Let me be clear: forcing hundreds of public servants out the door does not make HUD more efficient. It makes the agency weaker — and does nothing to make housing affordable.



Well, as I have talked with my staff and the work that we have done and they have done, you went on to roll back the Equal Access Rule, tearing down long-standing protections against discrimination for women, children, and LGBTQ+ individuals.



Last week, I’m told, you proposed a rule that would make it more difficult for victims and housing providers to enforce their rights under the law.



And, you also attempted to slash critical homeless funding and undermine proven programs like Housing First. Experts warn this will push more than 170,000 vulnerable Americans back onto the streets. Thankfully, the courts forced you to retract that proposal.



Secretary Turner, for the past year, we have watched you push ideologically driven housing policies while Trump dismisses the affordability crisis he created as a ‘hoax,’ a ’scam,’ and a ‘con job.’



The only con job I see is that this President and his cronies are trying to convince Americans that he cares about affordability more than he cares about winning in November.



Now, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the bipartisan work this Committee has done on housing, particularly passing the Housing for the 21st Century Act. But we need strong, pro-housing leadership at HUD to truly end this crisis. And Secretary Turner, and I don’t know if you understood what this job was all about, but I’m wondering, especially as you propose to cut HUD’s budget by half,’ said Congresswoman Maxine Waters.

2024 Pro-Publica article about Scott Turner.

According to a 2024, release from Pro-Publica, in part it says, “As Donald Trump’s nominee to run the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Scott Turner may soon oversee the nation’s efforts to build affordable apartments, protect poor tenants and aid the homeless. As a lawmaker in the Texas House of Representatives, Turner voted against those very initiatives.

Turner supported a bill ensuring landlords could refuse apartments to applicants because they received federal housing assistance. He opposed a bill to expand affordable rental housing. He voted against funding public-private partnerships to support the homeless and against two bills that called merely to study homelessness among young people and veterans.

Behind those votes lay a deep-seated skepticism about the value of government efforts to alleviate poverty, a skepticism that Turner has voiced again and again. He has called welfare “dangerous, harmful” and “one of the most destructive things for the family.” When one interviewer said receiving government assistance was keeping recipients in “bondage” of “a worse form to find oneself in than slavery,” Turner agreed.

Such views would seemingly place Turner at odds with the core work of HUD, a sprawling federal agency that serves as a backstop against homelessness for millions of the nation’s poor, elderly and disabled. With an annual discretionary budget of $72 billion, the department provides rental assistance to 2 million families, oversees the country’s 800,000 public housing units, fights housing discrimination and segregation and provides support to the nation’s 650,000 homeless. If Turner’s record indicates how he will direct the agency’s agenda, it is those clinging to the bottom of the housing market who have the most to lose, researchers and advocates said.

“It just doesn’t seem to me like this is someone who is at all aligned with what the values of that agency should be,” said Cea Weaver, director of the advocacy group Housing Justice for All. “It’s a deregulatory agenda, and it’s an anti-poor people agenda.”

Lynda Carson may be reached at newzland2 [at] gmail.com

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