Senator Murray Slams HUD Secretary for Backing Budget to Fund War Instead of Helping Americans Afford Housing

ICYMI : Senator Murray on President Trump’s FY27 Budget Request *** WATCH : Senator Murray’s full questioning*** Washington, D.C. — Today—at a Senate Appropriations Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing on the FY27 budget request for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)—U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, pressed Secretary Scott Turner on his efforts to dismantle key homelessness programs and the president’s request to gut funding to increase housing supply and keep Americans housed while seeking a half trillion dollar increase in defense funding. [CONTINUUM OF CARE] Senator Murray began by pressing Secretary Turner on when HUD will renew Continuum of Care grants that expire this year, as required by the FY26 funding bill. Thousands of organizations across the country rely on the grants to help reduce homelessness. MURRAY: Mr. Secretary, you know, addressing the homeless crisis is a top priority for my state and for many states across the country. And I am really concerned because your department has ignored the law and done the opposite. HUD is required to prioritize proven strategies to reduce homelessness, including permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing. But last year, you limited our local governments’ use of federal grants for those exact proven solutions—at least until a federal judge and Congress stopped you. And, in my state, you could have cut the federal funding to house people who are homeless by more than half! Nationwide, your changes could have put more than 170,000 households on the streets. So, we required you to renew grants and get this money out the door, and I have to tell you communities are still waiting far too long. Can you commit to us that you will move quickly to renew every Continuum of Care grant that expires this year as required by the language in our [FY]26 appropriations bill? TURNER: Well, thank you, Senator Murray, Vice Chair Murray, it’s good to see you again. And as you know we have got quarter one and quarter two funds out, and quarter three and quarter four funds also will go out. But I will say– MURRAY : From last year? TURNER: Yes ma’am. I will say that we do have a different approach to this, and I believe that the housing first model is a failed model. I believe that the housing first model, part of it—to house people—is important but we can’t stop there. We have to get the root of housing and homelessness, and that is mental addiction, drug addiction, domestic violence, and things of this nature. So, I believe we have to treat people, get them transformed and back out to a life of self-sustainability. MURRAY: Well, Mr. Secretary, our bill requires you to get this money out, and I’ll just tell you—all of the data, all of the research shows that economic factors are driving homelessness. It’s not because of housing first. If every American is feeling the strain on housing, it’s really hard to believe that those with the least, struggle the most, which is what’s happening. And housing first isn’t housing only. There’s case management, there is substance use, there is mental health, there’s employment services. That’s all part of the housing first model too, which you’re ignoring. So, I think it’s really important that we don’t demonize the people who are struggling today in this country for very real reason and work on building more housing. [ILLEGAL FUNDING DELAYS] Senator Murray continued by questioning Secretary Turner about HUD’s compliance with court orders to stop requiring local governments and non-profits to comply with unacceptable grant conditions. MURRAY: So let me move on, because I want to ask you about another thing. Under your leadership, local governments, and non-profits in my state and actually in the country have been left to navigate illegal, and in many cases, really bizarre new grant conditions, like requiring a housing provider to say they don’t believe trans people exist. Last year, as you know, a federal court prohibited you from requiring or enforcing the grant conditions. But you are continuing to insert illegal conditions into every grant agreement and entities cannot access these grant funds until agreeing to illegal terms. So, how exactly is that complying with the court’s order? TURNER: At HUD ma’am we will be in accordance with every order from the court, we will enforce and uphold the law, we will work with Congress, but we also will enforce the Fair Housing Act in the way we’ve been called to enforce it, as the laws are written on the book. And that’s my job as secretary to ensure we are enforcing the Fair Housing Act. MURRAY: Well, I just have to tell you, I don’t see how these conditions are complying with the court order, so I have a big disagreement with that. But I also want you to know that our nonprofits who are trying to serve these communities, it is their goal, are wasting a lot of time trying to understand the shifting legal landscape and the bizarre requirements out there. And, you have refused to sign agreements or release notices of funding opportunities for funds that expire five months from now, running down the clock is what it feels like to everybody out there. And all of this comes after you pushed out over a third of the HUD employees last year so there’s less people to be able to get these grants out. It appears to a lot of people who are talking to me that you’re breaking the department, not making sure that people get housing. TURNER: Well, if I may ma’am, and I have to correct you. We did not push out anyone, we had volunteers– MURRAY: Okay we’re going into semantics. Okay, a lot of people left your department, we’ll disagree about why. TURNER: It was voluntarily, the DRP program, and people took it. The people that want to be at HUD, are at HUD and I’m happy to have them– MURRAY: Would you agree that you have a loss quite a few people at HUD to do the work? TURNER: But also, the government shutdown has kept us from getting these NOFOs out. Our team is working tirelessly every day to get these NOFOs out and we will get them out. And we have an adequate, sufficient well-working team at HUD across our agency– MURRAY: We have a lot fewer people at your department for whatever reason you want to talk about, Mr. Secretary and that is causing a lot of people to not get their grants along with all this confusing language. TURNER: No ma’am, it’s not because our people. We have the right people in the right place doing the right thing. MURRAY: Okay, we have a disagreement. TURNER: Okay. [COST OF WAR] Senator Murray then addressed President Trump’s proposal to blow $1.5 trillion on his war budget instead of helping families afford housing. MURRAY: You said in your opening statement that: “taxpayer dollars are finite.” But President Trump’s budget, his whole budget, actually sends war funding through the roof as we all know. So instead of blowing a half a trillion dollars more on war funding, I want to ask you, if we weren’t doing that how many more units of housing could we build? TURNER: Vice Chair Murray, the president is very intentional and very precise on what his national security directors are – my job is to run HUD– MURRAY: No, yes, I know I just– TURNER: That’s what I’m focused on is housing affordability. With all due respect, the president is clear on what he wants to do, my job is to run HUD and to take down the regulatory environment, which I hear from the industry experts as I travel, the regulatory environment are crippling building in our country. MURRAY: You have a different view than I do, and I just want you to know that if we use that money for housing, we could build 1.1 million affordable housing units. That is a huge dent in the seven million units of housing that you yourself say that our country needs. But your budget actually cuts housing. So, let me ask it a different way, can you help more families with housing with $84 billion or with $73.5 billion? TURNER: Here’s what I’ll say—here’s what I say—in the previous years before we got here, housing affordability was not at an all-time high. Mortgage rates– MURRAY: This is the go-to answer for every secretary, is go back to Biden – and I’m asking you about your administration, sir. TURNER: It’s not the go-to answer, as the secretary, I’m just giving you the facts. Mortgage rates were up, interest rates were up, inflation was up, the regulatory environment was crippling. It doesn’t matter the administration, these are the facts, ma’am. And I’ve been dealing with these facts, ma’am, to bring mortgage rates down, interest rates down, to build affordable housing. MURRAY: You can go back to the Biden administration—it’s the go to answer for every secretary—I’m asking you about your administration. I’m asking you about what you could do with this housing and how we address the number one issue facing many of my constituents and many people in the country. And the answer is you could do a lot more work and help families with funding that went to housing and not $1.5 trillion for a war. ###