The church does not pay taxes, yet they want to use Federal Taxes to manage more and more of our Secular Safety Net. Churches do not hold election where outsiders are allowed to run, even thought the bulk of the money the church will have at its disposal come from
TAXPAYERS
If you are a Taxpayer and a Christian who pays a tithe, you may like this new system – that conflicts with the Democracy our Founding Fathers established. This is a Triple Tax System when you count Trump’s Tariifs that were inflicted upon most Americans, and a billion foreigners who do not pay American Taxes, but are Christian. Consider Christian Missionaries.
Christianity was not born in America, or, Israel. It is a
IMPORTED RELIGION
In affect, Scott Turner is acting like a Baptist Missionary. He knows the poor being forced to go to the New Church Charity State, will produce converts who will fill the pews of Churches that are losing parisjioners because…
THEIR RELGION IS NOT WORKING LIKE IT USED TO!
To blame Secular Institutions, then defund Food Stamps and Medicaid
IS EVIL
What does Scott Turner mean by “healed and transformed”? Note his hand jestor that appears to SWEEP the altered street rubble into …
THE CHURCH
where they will be encouraged to
VOTE REPUBLICAN
if they want King Jesus to keep working his housing deal with you.
John Presco
Minister of The New Radio Church of God.
Headquarters, Springfield Oregon
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner is touting a “paradigm shift” in the Trump administration’s approach to homelessness, as officials pursue new limits to public housing benefits and seek to shift the burden of housing support away from the federal government and towards nonprofit and faith-based groups.
HUD secretary pursues ‘paradigm shift’ in administration’s approach to homelessness
Meanwhile, housing advocates decry the Trump administration’s crackdown on homelessness.
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner is touting a “paradigm shift” in the Trump administration’s approach to homelessness, as officials pursue new limits to public housing benefits and seek to shift the burden of housing support away from the federal government and towards nonprofit and faith-based groups.
By: Jacob Gardenswartz , Haley Bull
Posted 11:07 AM, Aug 28, 2025
and last updated 11:54 AM, Aug 29, 2025
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner is touting a “paradigm shift” in the Trump administration’s approach to homelessness, as officials pursue new limits to public housing benefits and seek to shift the burden of housing support away from the federal government and towards nonprofit and faith-based groups.
In an interview with Scripps News, Turner said the administration is focusing on public-private partnerships, working to make it easier to build relationships with faith-based entities and approaching homelessness from a “holistic standpoint.”
“The federal government is not the answer,” Turner argued. “The real answer is in the private sector. It’s in these faith-based entities and institutions, and we’ve seen them around the country that are not only housing, okay, our homeless friends and neighbors, but bring[ing] in wraparound services. To look at it from a holistic standpoint, because ‘housing first’ doesn’t work.”
Pressed if that shift is taking place in D.C. — as the federal government’s takeover of local police has resulted in the clearing of dozens of homeless camps — Turner said, “it’s part of it,” pointing to homelessness statistics from the previous administration.
“Different plays are being called, different mindset. Not only get people off the streets, but help people to get healed, help people to be transformed, and then really use it as a trampoline for people to live lives of self-sustainability. And so that’s the mission, that’s the strategy that we’re implementing as we speak,” Turner added.
Teams have cleared 49 encampments in Washington, D.C. since the start of the federal operation, according to a White House official. The White House has said homeless individuals impacted are being offered mental health and addiction support services, though they’ve declined to answer questions as to which specific programs they’re offering or where the individuals are being moved.
Asked whether nonprofits and faith-based entities throughout the country have the resources to accept a greater role in caring for homeless populations, Turner argued they emphatically do.
“We do have enough infrastructure,” he told Scripps News. “We have enough infrastructure. We have more than enough funding. We just had the wrong mindset prior to this administration coming in.”
Separation of Church and State
in HUD Programs
The faith community has long been one of the leaders in assisting homeless persons and families and in providing affordable housing for poor people, especially special populations like the elderly and disabled. HUD is proud to be a partner in making assistance available for these purposes. But special consideration attends participation by the Faith Community.
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment or religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” These two purposeful provisions—the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause—may sometimes seem in tension. Working them out requires careful, principled commitment. For purposes of the role of the Faith Community in HUD assistance programs, the Establishment Clause is generally the requirement that must be addressed.
Supreme Court cases have established that an organization’s religious affiliations do not constitutionally disqualify it from participating equally in a governmental program that provides grants to religious and non-religious entities alike on a neutral basis, where the criteria for funding are neutral and secular. However, a government may not choose to fund a particular organization because it is religious in character or because of its religious affiliations, and may not prefer religious organizations over others, e.g., by setting aside a particular portion of funds for them. Moreover, a government may not prefer certain religious denominations or organizations over others for funding, except on the basis of secular criteria unrelated to the organizations’ religious affiliations or tenets.
Thus, in the case of HUD funding to private organizations to enable them to provide services to people in need, such funding may be provided to religiously affiliated organizations. Such organizations must not, however, use HUD aid to advance specifically religious activities – such as religious worship, religious instruction, or proselytizing – in an otherwise substantially secular setting. HUD may, in other words, subsidize a religious organization’s secular program providing, for example, food and shelter to the homeless so long as that program can be meaningfully and reasonably separated from the organization’s sectarian activities. In particular, HUD must ensure that the organization’s privately-funded religious activities are not offered as part of its government-funded program and that the government-funded program is not used as a device to involve the participants in religious activities. The government may not provide funding directly to organizations in which secular activities cannot be separated from sectarian ones, because where secular and sectarian activities are inextricably intertwined, the provision of direct financial aid invariably will support religious activity. In addition, HUD expressly requires providers to agree not to discriminate on the basis of religion in hiring or in the provision of services.
Certain HUD programs involve aid to private organizations, including religiously affiliated organizations, to improve real property that is to be used for, e.g., housing assistance for the elderly and the disabled. The facilities and structures that are improved with such aid must not be used for sectarian instruction or as a place for religious worship.
As indicated above, the other side of the religious component of the First Amendment is the Free Exercise Clause. HUD is sensitive to this branch of the law. One way HUD helps in this respect relates to issues concerning the occasional and incidental use of community space for religious purposes in federally assisted public housing and section 202 and 811 projects for the elderly and disabled. The general HUD policy is that community space may be made available for purposes of interest to residents, including religious purposes, so long as the space is made available to all residents in the same manner.
HUD looks forward to continuing the shared mission of both government and the churches to lessen the hurt of poverty and homelessness and to move toward eradicating them.
Content Archived: April 9, 2010
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Scott Turner speaks with Donald Trump during an Opportunity Zone conference with state, local, tribal and community leaders at the White House on April 17, 2019. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
The U.S. Senate has confirmed a Southern Baptist pastor to serve as secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Trump administration.
Scott Turner, who was serving on staff at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, was confirmed Feb. 5 by a 55-44 vote. In a sea of highly controversial cabinet nominees, Turner’s nomination drew little attention.
In addition to serving on staff at Prestonwood, Turner is the founder and president of Community Engagement and Opportunity Council, an organization that supports children living in poverty and has made a major contribution to the Bonton neighborhood of South Dallas. He also serves as chief visionary officer for JPI, a national developer of affordable multifamily housing. And he and his wife, Robin Turner, own Statesman Clothiers, a custom men’s clothing company.
Scott Turner
He also serves as chair of the Center for Education Opportunity at America First Policy Institute, a far-right advocacy group set up by former Trump administration staffers whose mission is devote to “the primacy of American workers, families and communities.” In that role, Turner has advocated for school vouchers.
Other staff members from America First Policy Institute have been placed throughout government agencies in various roles and are driving Trump’s agenda to radically reshape the federal government.
Turner served in the first Trump administration with a task to promote investment in distressed neighborhoods. He spent nine years as a professional football player before being elected to the Texas House of Representatives twice.
ProPublica reported that as a lawmaker in Texas, Turner opposed expanding affordable rental housing and supported a bill to let landlords refuse to rent to someone on federal housing assistance.
During his confirmation hearing, Turner told senators HUD is “failing at its most basic mission,” citing high rates of homelessness and a shortage of affordable housing.
He also indicated he does not believe more federal money will make things better: “There’s record funding from HUD, and we’re still not meeting the need.”
Republicans historically have been critical of Section 8 housing, the government program that helps poor people with subsidized rents. Turner told senators he agrees with critics of the program that it is too cumbersome and its rules need to be eased.
The National Apartment Association and the National Multifamily Housing Council issued a statement congratulating Turner: “Secretary Turner’s expansive background in rental housing, community development and economic revitalization makes him the right leader for HUD at the right time.”
Yet even on day one, Turner will face the contradictory reality of the administration’s demands to pause federal payments for grants and other assistance programs that intersect with HUD’s mission.
HUD’s website appears to be in the midst of revisions. On a page titled “What We Do,” links to a “Climate Action Plan” have been removed, producing the message, “The requested page cannot be found.”
In the “News Releases” section, past years of releases are still visible for 1996 through 2023 but all 2024 news releases through the date of Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, are missing.
In addition to housing, HUD has responsibilities for fairness, rental assistance, climate and research.
Rosamond Press 
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