President-elect Donald Trump has just shown he believes there is such a thing as “Black jobs.” His sole Black Cabinet appointment, former NFL player and White House official Scott Turner, will lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development. His present position is chair of the Center for Education Opportunity at the America First Policy Institute. During Trump’s first term, Turner served as the executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, an initiative 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. That law created a massive new tax incentive that made it cheaper to back either real estate projects or operating businesses in those areas. In 2019, Turner traveled with former HUD Secretary Ben Carson touting the program.
Taking a look at current conditions in many communities, particularly those in Black and Latino neighborhoods, the long-term effectiveness of that program for anyone other than developers can certainly be questioned. Trump, in announcing his selection last week, said Turner helped in that role “to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities,” adding: “Those efforts, working together with former HUD Secretary, Ben Carson, were maximized by Scott’s guidance in overseeing 16 Federal Agencies which implemented more than 200 policy actions furthering Economic Development.” Aside from being a nine-year NFL veteran, Turner’s other political experiences include an unsuccessful run for California’s 50th Congressional District in 2006, but election to the Texas House in 2012. He finished out his term in 2017 after losing a bid for the state House speakership.
There have been six other Black HUD secretaries, appointed under both Democratic and Republican Presidents. It’s both interesting and informative that this has evidently become the “Black job” for Blacks, though at least other Presidents (mostly Democrats) have appointed Blacks to other positions in such areas as agriculture, defense, and finance.
However, what will truly be worth watching with this appointment is exactly how much access and power Turner really has in terms of being a Cabinet Secretary. Affordable housing remains a critical problem nationwide, with the homeless rate still far higher than it should be in a nation as rich as this one. Issues of gentrification are also acute in many communities, as senior citizens increasingly find themselves displaced when developers buy up land, construct luxury housing that drives up property tax rates and, in many instances, simply force out people who’ve lived in those neighborhoods for decades. Black communities across the country, Nashville included, are facing the real dilemma of seeing themselves priced out of housing.
If HUD is going to be something other than just a token position to make it look like attention is being paid to Black concerns, HUD secretaries need to become advocates for aggressive new strategies that create more affordable housing, and also make it possible for seniors to remain in their homes and neighborhoods.
Ronald Reagan once forgot the name of his HUD secretary at a press conference (It was Samuel Pierce). He apologized, and in later years it turned out that was just evidence of his diminishing mental faculties that the press chose to ignore throughout his second term. But it was also an indication of how little clout the HUD secretary had at the time.
Housing is certainly a critical area and concern, and one would hope that the new HUD Secretary won’t view himself as content to just get along and be a Trump rear-end kisser like so many others in the Republican Party. Despite what some want to believe, Trump did not get a majority of Black voters, men or women, nor a majority of Latino voters. He did get more than any other Republican in decades, but there remain many people who are extremely skeptical of his administration and took his hateful words and attacks on candidate Kamala Harris to heart.
If HUD is going to be something other than a graveyard cabinet job for Black tokens, Scott Turner needs to demonstrate that new reality with bold and fresh visions for improving housing opportunities for millions of citizens, and seeing that Black-owned construction companies have an equal shot at getting lucrative building contracts. That way, he can demonstrate that the HUD post really does have some importance and clout, rather than just being the position that Presidents from both political parties consider the most appropriate position for any Blacks in their Cabinet.
