Turner.
Illustration: Isabel Seliger for Bloomberg BusinessweekTrump’s Housing Chief Wants to Build, But With What?
HUD Secretary Scott Turner says it’s time to put millions more Americans in homes. He’s also standing by while his agency’s staff and funding disappear.
“Y’all see that brick?” Scott Turner asks with a grin. It’s a July afternoon in Washington, DC, and he’s pointing at a white cinder block that’s sitting on the carpeted floor of his office at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Turner says the brick fell out of his ceiling a few months earlier and missed his cranium by a couple of feet. The lesson, he says, was clear: It was time for HUD to find a new home.
It’s undeniable that the housing agency’s headquarters has seen better days. HUD has occupied the same offices almost since its founding, six decades ago, as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s war on poverty. By the time Turner was confirmed as the agency’s secretary earlier this year, the building was legendary for its problems with air quality and mold, the elevators were frequently out of order, and the “WELCOME TO HUD” sign above one entrance was missing its M. None of this helped the brutalist-style HQ—with its small windows, drop ceilings and god-awful lighting—shake its reputation as 10 floors of basement.