Partisan hearing put HUD staffing, civil rights and investor crackdown under the microscope
The Biden era’s fair housing architecture, the Trump administration’s deregulation push and a fresh crackdown on Wall Street homebuyers all collided this week as Housing and Urban Development secretary Scott Turner faced a heated House oversight hearing on his first year at HUD and the Federal Housing Administration.
Lawmakers from both parties agreed the housing market remains under acute strain, with high mortgage rates, thin inventory and stubborn affordability pressures weighing on buyers. But the session quickly split along familiar partisan lines over whether HUD should be shrinking its workforce, unwinding civil rights rules and tying housing stress to immigration while also helping implement president Donald Trump’s new order targeting institutional investors in single family homes.
Staffing cuts and civil rights rollback under fire
Committee chair French Hill of Arkansas framed HUD’s problems as largely self inflicted. America’s housing challenges, he said, are compounded “by the deficiencies in HUD’s oversight framework and regulatory red tape” that have constrained supply and reduced access to affordable housing.
Hill pointed to the proposed Housing for the 21st Century Act as a way to modernize HUD programs and cut consumer costs.
Turner, appointed last year, argued his tenure focused on fiscal discipline. He told lawmakers HUD uncovered nearly $5 billion in potential improper payments in fiscal 2024 and was “taking steps to improve recipient and subrecipient reporting, enhance HUD monitoring capabilities and streamline grants management.”
He added that the agency is “rooting out corruption at public housing authorities and private multifamily owners,” citing an Atlantic City probe.
Democrats warned that the same cost cutting agenda is hollowing out the agency. Ranking member Maxine Waters said “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.”
She cited reports that HUD terminated more than 780 employees and rolled back protections for LGBTQ tenants, unhoused people and other vulnerable groups.
Immigration also surfaced as a fault line. Turner linked pressure on subsidized housing to illegal immigration, and said HUD is committed to ensuring taxpayer support went to American citizens only, drawing pushback from Democrats who argued the approach risk separating families and worsening homelessness.
Investor ban, supply squeeze and regulatory costs
Beyond HUD’s internal shake up, Republicans repeatedly pressed Turner on how his department would enforce Trump’s executive order stopping Wall Street from competing with Main Street homebuyers, which directed HUD and other agencies to limit federal support for large investors buying single family homes and to expand first look opportunities for owner occupiers.
Turner told Rep. Marlin Stutzman that HUD would work with Treasury and the Federal Housing Finance Agency under a 30 day deadline. “The intentions are very clear that we want to make sure that American people are able to buy homes,” he said. “Homes are for the American people.”
Waters countered that under Turner, HUD sold billions of dollars worth of distressed properties directly to corporate investors in 2025 and routinely waived First Look rules that are supposed to give households the first shot at foreclosed homes. She also criticized Turner for announcing another bulk sale just two days before Trump signed the investor order.
Industry groups have questioned how far the crackdown would go. Analysts found large institutional landlords still owned a relatively small share of single family stock nationwide, even as their footprint loomed larger in certain Sun Belt markets. Housing economists have argued that without more construction, restricting investors alone would do little to fix affordability.
Buddy Hughes, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, used a parallel congressional appearance this week to repeat that “regulations account for nearly 25% of the cost of a single‑family home and more than 40% of the cost of a typical apartment development.”
He warned that stricter federal energy codes and labor rules are “impeding the ability of builders to boost housing production” and urged Congress and the administration to “prohibit HUD and USDA from enforcing a minimum energy standard that increases housing costs during a nationwide affordability crisis.”
Mortgage pros watch Washington for affordability answers
Several lawmakers drilled into how these cross currents are playing out for first time buyers. Rep. Ann Wagner cited recent data showing the average age of a first‑time buyer has climbed to 40 and that the share of purchases by first‑timers has fallen to about 21%, roughly half its level before the 2008 crisis.
Asked how HUD would ensure new construction is not just high end, Turner pointed back to macro conditions.
“To me, it’s an overall picture of getting our fiscal house in order, bringing interest rates down, mortgage rates down and access to capital,” he said.
“If we can bring affordability down, which we’re working on, and bring the supply up, then people in America will be able to afford to buy a home.” He also pointed to opportunity zones as “a means to build affordable housing across the country.”
Outside Congress, mortgage industry leaders struck a similar note on the need for coordinated policy, even as they disagreed on the best levers.
National Association of Mortgage Brokers president Kimber White told Mortgage Professional America that affordability is an issue that we need to bring everyone together on, urging brokers, builders and trade groups to come under the tent to work together on issues like supply and loan pricing.
NAHB representatives have likewise said that a nationwide shortage of roughly 1.5 million housing units has kept shelter inflation elevated, and warned that permitting delays, higher fees and tighter financing continue to hold back starts.
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