Remarks given by HUD Secretary Turner at NHC’s Housing Visionary Awards Gala on June 11. (As Delivered)
Good evening. It’s so good to be here with you all tonight. Thank you, Sir, for that kind introduction!
I’m so grateful tonight to be before you. Before I start tonight, I have a special congratulations to my dear brother and friend, Mr. Andrew Hughes who was just confirmed as Deputy Secretary. I know he’s here, I think he’s back there – Andrew, I’m so proud of you and look forward to our continued work at HUD.
For those of you who are here tonight, it’s been a busy couple days. I had a couple hearings today in front of the Senate, and yesterday in front of the House. Some of you may have seen those hearings. Thank you for watching. Thank you for your support. Here you are again tonight to listen to me, so I’m grateful for your support and your confidence. I appreciate your attendance.
I’m excited to share with you all my vision for HUD, and everything we’ve accomplished since President Trump’s return to the White House this year in January.
At HUD and in President Trump’s administration, we have an unshakeable confidence in the American people. We believe in Americans’ capacity for hard work, and in their determination to better their lives, help their families, and revitalize their communities and their nation.
So, given the fact of this, we know that advancing solutions to affordable housing means removing obstacles from people’s paths. The best way forward in America is to help Americans help themselves; it is not to shove Washington’s meddling hands into every aspect of the lives of the American people.
We will build our way out of our housing affordability problems. We cannot, and we shall not try to regulate our way out of this issue.
Overregulation, in fact, is often the enemy of the very people it’s supposed to help.
Take the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule. This regulation took away local zoning powers from states and local governments and concentrated them in the hands of D.C. bureaucrats, intentionally becoming a regional or national zoning board. It made housing more expensive and more scarce. It undermined the very idea of federalism that the U.S. was built on—the idea that Americans in their own towns, cities, and states know best how to run their lives, without the heavy handedness, and the interference and micromanaging of federal officials.
That’s why I ended this regulation as one of my first actions as we came into HUD.
That’s not the end of our anti-red tape campaign.
HUD’s Federal Housing Administration, or FHA, has helped facilitate homeownership for millions of Americans by providing insurance backed mortgages originated by private lenders, with most going to support first-time homebuyers, and many low-to middle-income households, with lower down-payments. Already we have taken numerous actions targeted to deregulate, streamline and make the process less burdensome and more efficient for both borrowers and lenders. For example, we have archived almost 600 obsolete mortgagee letters with outdated guidance going back to 1978. I’m going to say it again – we have archived almost 600 obsolete mortgagee letters with outdated guidance going back to 1978.
We cut red tape and made it easier for lenders to find information so they can help more Americans find a place to call home.
My team and I are going to continue to identify and ditch other regulations that harm Americans instead of helping them or just simply make things harder than they need to be.
But HUD has other roles to play in promoting the American Dream of homeownership.
Those of you who know me know how much I love the Opportunity Zone initiative, and how committed I am as Secretary to be the number one ambassador and cheerleader to continue supporting Opportunity Zones.
Opportunity Zones are an innovative solution that has bolstered and strengthened American communities from coast to coast, tip to tip. They have led to almost $90 billion pouring into communities all across America – rural, Tribal, and urban. Those massive investments have led to more jobs, more housing, and 1 million Americans being lifted out of poverty.
When you’re in politics, it’s easy to get so caught up in numbers and reports that you forget what they really represent: real people, real families, real lives. Not just percentage points and lines on a graph.
That’s why one of my greatest joys in HUD so far has been visiting many of these Opportunity Zones and seeing the lives that have been improved by this policy. To me, these statistics on Opportunity Zones are far more than numbers on a page: they are Americans buying new homes, starting new businesses, and finding new ways to provide for themselves and their families.
That’s the vision that motivates me and our team at HUD. George Washington once said that “perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages,” and I promise that it is with perseverance and spirit that we’re going to keep working hard in service to the American people, ushering in a future of expanded homeownership and revitalized communities.
Revitalization means ‘to bring new life’. That’s my heart. That’s the heart of the people at HUD. We’re returning the mission-minded focus back to HUD. Rest assured that we understand this time and this season. We know why we’ve been called. We know what the mission is. We know the people that we’ve been called to serve – to bring new life to the communities of America. For that, I’m grateful to be a part of this team.
Thank you all and God Bless!