SEC SCOTT TURNER: Blame drugs and mental illness, not President Trump, for the chaos gripping our streets

New HUD policies prioritize addiction treatment and mental health services over Housing First ideology that led to higher death rates in subsidized housing units.

Secretary Scott Turner leads the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He previously served as executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, where he championed Opportunity Zones during the first administration of President Donald J. Trump. 

In 2024, the Biden administration published a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Continuum of Care (CoC) program, which was designed to fund organizations working to address homelessness. We quickly found that, like many department programs, this one had strayed from its original intent, becoming a mismanaged slush fund that enabled endless government-supported homelessness rather than delivering real solutions.

What we uncovered exposes the severity of the waste, fraud and abuse under the Biden administration, as well as its disdain for law enforcement. The NOFO revealed an administration that prioritized awarding HUD funds to groups that refused to helpfully cooperate with law enforcement.