President-elect Donald Trump has named former NFL player Scott Turner as his pick to lead the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“Scott is an NFL Veteran, who, during my First Term, served as the First Executive Director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council (WHORC), helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities,” Trump said in his announcement.
If confirmed by the Senate, Turner, 52, would lead the agency tasked with enforcing housing laws, managing programs to address housing needs, administering rental subsidies to lower-income families and handling housing discrimination cases.
He is expected to carry out promises long laid out along the Trump campaign trail, including reversing Biden-era fair housing policies and overhauling homelessness programs, Politico reported.
During Trump’s first term, Turner played a key role in leading the WHORC initiative, which Trump created in 2018 to “encourage public and private investment” in thousands of low-income census tracts designated as so-called “opportunity zones” by Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
After Trump’s loss to Biden in 2020, Turner became the chair of the Center for Education Opportunity at America First Policy Institute, a group with close ties to Trump’s transition team.
Turner previously served in the Texas House of Representatives from 2013 to 2017.
Before his political career, the cornerback played nine seasons in the NFL as a member of the Washington Commanders, San Diego Chargers and the Denver Broncos.
