The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) spent 2025 laying the groundwork the Trump administration can build off of as it hones in on affordability issues in 2026.
Under Secretary Scott Turner, HUD launched an Innovative Housing Showcase on the National Mall, which spotlighted dozens of American businesses that bring low-cost homes to Americans across the country, announced its headquarters relocation to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R., Va.) Virginia, and reformed its grant-making process so that funds from the department go only to American citizens.
“President Trump is advancing the American Dream of homeownership, and under his leadership HUD made huge steps to fulfill that noble mission in 2025,” Turner told the Washington Reporter. “We’ve slashed red tape, championed common sense policies like Opportunity Zones, and ensured HUD funds go to American citizens, not illegals.”
Turner also told the Reporter in an earlier interview that Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell “needs to bring [interest rates] down” a few days before Powell did just that. “This is not an individual thing. This is a team effort. From a fiduciary standpoint, from a monetary standpoint, from a regulatory standpoint, from a congressional standpoint, from an agency standpoint, from the president’s standpoint, everybody is doing what they’re supposed to be doing in order to help American people achieve the American Dream and to create housing.”
Turner — a former NFL star and state legislator — worked with Attorney General Pam Bondi and the broader Trump administration on making American cities like Memphis safer. Turner joined Bondi and the Reporter on a trip to Memphis, where Bondi touted the successes of the Trump administration’s Memphis Safe Task Force.
While in Memphis, Turner announced the launch of a hotline for Americans in public housing to “report criminals [and] illegal aliens,” wreaking havoc in public housing, which is something that should be a “sanctuary” for low-income Americans, he said. “We’re spearheading this hotline right here in Memphis, Tennessee.” Turner said his agency wants to “return[] power back to the people and the citizens of Memphis.”
Turner’s term, he added, “started by scrapping the Biden-era Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule…The AFFH rule burdened America’s suburbs with red tape. Ending this regulation was a critical step in restoring freedom to local communities.”
Looking ahead to the upcoming year, Turner added to the Reporter that “as we celebrate our country’s 250th birthday, we will help even more Americans achieve the American Dream.”
“This year we helped more than 1 million Americans achieve the American Dream of homeownership by insuring mortgages through HUD’s Federal Housing Administration,” he noted. “This is in addition to the work of HUD’s Government National Mortgage Association, or Ginnie Mae, which provided critical liquidity for more than 430,000 Veterans Affairs loans.”
“And to combat homelessness,” he continued, “we welcomed more than 350,000 faith-based organizations back to the table as partners to provide care for the most vulnerable and help them achieve self-sufficiency instead of permanent government dependence.”