Trump’s pick Scott Turner to run HUD may hate the poor

Trump’s pick Scott Turner to run HUD may hate the poor

By Lynda Carson - December 24, 2024

The convicted felon Donald J. Trump, picked former football player Scott Turner, a man who may hate the poor and opposes welfare assistance for the poor, to be the next HUD Secretary.

Reportedly back around the mid 2000’s, during football off seasons, Scott Turner worked as an intern for the disgraced Representative Duncan Hunter, a rabid right-wing Republican from California. After Turner retired in 2004, he worked full time for the congressman as an intern. In 2006, Turner ran unsuccessfully as a right-wing Republican in California’s 50th Congressional District.

During the period that Turner was an intern for the disgraced Duncan Hunter, Hunter expected his interns to follow the GOP party line and support massive budget increases for the Pentagon, while supporting budget cuts for our nation’s federal domestic programs assisting the poor, including HUD’s subsidized housing programs.

Additionally, under former president George W. Bush, there were massive budget cuts to HUD’s subsidized housing programs during 2004 through 2006, and Duncan Hunter was not a supporter of public housing or the Section 8 voucher program a.k.a. Housing Choice Voucher Program. Reportedly, with the support of Duncan Hunter, the “Bush Administration’s annual budgets accorded priority to tax cuts and large funding increases for defense and homeland security. When sizeable federal budget deficits emerged in 2003 and 2004, caused in part by the deep tax cuts, the Administration and Congress began to squeeze domestic discretionary funding.”

Things were so bad, according to the County of Los Angeles Housing Authority in 2004, there was an $8 million funding shortfall to the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program.

According to a story by the LA Times called , “Cut in HUD Funds a Blow to Poor.”
By Jocelyn Y. Stewart - Feb. 29, 2004 12 AM PT - TIMES STAFF WRITER

It states, “The suspension of a federal housing subsidy for about 1,500 low-income families has caused a deep fissure in Los Angeles’ already shaky structure for helping the needy, leaving many families with little hope of finding safe housing and forcing officials and advocates to respond to what one advocate called a “housing catastrophe.”

As officials, including the mayor’s office, appeal to the federal government for help, families cut off from the Section 8 program are in a desperate search for spaces in shelters, motels or in the homes of friends and relatives. Phone lines at social service agencies have been flooded by those seeking help.”


Click here, for details about the local effects of the proposed budget cuts in federal housing assistance in California, reported in 2004.

As An Intern, Scott Turner Supported Duncan Hunter, While Duncan Hunter Supported Massive Budget Cuts To HUD's Subsidized Housing Programs:

Indeed, while Scott Turner supported Duncan Hunter as an intern, and the massive budget cuts to HUD’s subsidized housing programs that Hunter supported, many organizations locally and all across the nation including thousands of dedicated housing activists fought back against the massive HUD budget cuts occurring nationwide that Scott Turner supported while he was an intern for Duncan Hunter.

As the thousands of blind and disabled people were being forced into homelessness onto the streets of America by the grim policies of HUD's Alfonso Jackson and the War Monger, George W. Bush, communities around the country were astounded by the major disaster unfolding before their very eyes.

In 2005, reportedly in the County of Marin, “The group Save Section 8 of Marin held a rally opposing recently proposed federal budget cuts that will affect those who need assistance most: local housing programs and the services they provide to extremely low-income working families with children; fixed-income people with disabilities; and senior residents.

Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, was the keynote speaker at the rally. She was joined by Supervisor Charles McGlashan; Stephen Willard, program manager for Section 8, Marin Housing Authority; the Rev. Carol Hovis, executive director of Marin Interfaith Council; and activist Lynda Carson. Marion Brady, coordinator for Save Section 8 of Marin and herself a voucher-holder on disability, will bring her message to residents to "get mad and get organized."

ProPublica Article About Scott Turner:

https://www.propublica.org/article/scott-turner-hud-nominee-trump-public-housing-texas

According to a recent article by ProPublica, reportedly Scott Turner supported a bill ensuring landlords could refuse apartments to applicants because they received federal housing assistance.

https://capitol.texas.gov/billlookup/History.aspx?LegSess=84R&Bill=SB267

He also opposed a bill to expand affordable rental housing.

https://capitol.texas.gov/billlookup/History.aspx?LegSess=83R&Bill=HB3350

He also voted against funding public-private partnerships to support the homeless

https://capitol.texas.gov/billlookup/Actions.aspx?LegSess=83R&Bill=HB2887

And he voted against two bills that called merely to study homelessness among young people and veterans.

https://capitol.texas.gov/billlookup/Actions.aspx?LegSess=84R&Bill=HB679

Scott Turner has also declared that welfare is “dangerous, harmful” and “one of the most destructive things for the family.”

https://wellversedworld.podbean.com/e/opportunity-zones-authentically-raising-the-poor-w-scott-turner-and-kevin-mcgary-%E2%80%93-6112023/

When one interviewer said receiving government assistance was keeping recipients in “bondage” of “a worse form to find oneself in than slavery,” Scott Turner agreed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRPRjBhI53w&t=367s

Scott Turner also opposed legislation to help public housing authorities replace or rehabilitate their property

https://capitol.texas.gov/billlookup/History.aspx?LegSess=83R&Bill=HB1888

He also sought to require drug testing for poor families applying for government assistance, the Houston Chronicle reported at the time.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/drug-testing-welfare-applicants-popular-but-can-4416545.php

Additionally, further research reveals that while in office in Texas, Scott Turner voted against Obama Care, and spoke out against Obama Care (A.C.A.), claiming, “If left unchecked, Obama Care has the potential to bankrupt Texas. Texans should be able to choose their own health care provider and make their own medical choices, not have our health care decisions micromanaged by Washington, D.C." Turner also supported an anti-gay bill to oppose marriage for gays in Texas.

Former HUD Secretary Under Trump, Ben Carson Endorsed Scott Turner:

Recently, Ben Carson, former HUD Secretary under the convicted felon Donald J. Trump, endorsed Scott Turner as the next HUD Secretary, which as a very bad omen for HUD, and the poor subsidized HUD housing tenants.

That’s right! Poor people cannot possibly expect to be treated fairly by Scott Turner if he becomes the next HUD Secretary, and they can only expect tyranny, threats, homelessness, and misery if Turner becomes the next HUD Secretary.

Presently, Scott Turner is working for a company (JPI Construction) that has been cited as recent as 2021, for alleged wage theft violations of over $1.7 million dollars.

Reportedly, "SAN DIEGO (CNS) – A San Diego-based construction company has been fined more than $1.7 million by the California Labor Commissioner’s Office for allegedly failing to properly pay its workers, resulting in minimum wage and overtime violations.

JPI Construction allegedly didn’t properly pay employees working on commercial and residential construction projects, leading to wage theft violations affecting 265 workers, according to the Labor Commissioner’s Office.

The Labor Commissioner’s Office alleges an audit of the company’s payroll showed “illegally modified time sheets that removed record of the overtime hours the workers should have been paid.”

The owners have appealed the citations, which total $1,771,133, with $1,610,527 payable to the workers. Under the appeal procedure, the Labor Commissioner’s Office will hold a hearing before a hearing officer who will affirm, modify or dismiss the citations.

“Paying workers a flat rate is not an excuse to deny them the overtime hours they earned and should be paid,” California Labor Commissioner Lilia Garcia-Brower said in a statement. “The laws in California protect workers. It is critical that workers keep track of their hours and pay so they can defend themselves.”

Click here https://www.dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2021/2021-104.html for more about JPI Construction for allegedly cheating their workers with wage theft, a company that Scott Turner works for.

JPI Construction Was Also Involved In $10.5 Million Settlement:

Additionally, the JPI Construction website blurb for Scott Turner forgot to mention that Scott Turner is working for a company (JPI Construction LP.), that was involved in a landmark $10.5 million settlement to resolve a disability-based housing discrimination lawsuit back in 2012 with the Justice Department.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-obtains-landmark-105-million-settlement-resolve-disability-based-housing

Reportedly, on June 25, 2012, "The Justice Department today announced its largest-ever disability-based housing discrimination settlement fund to resolve allegations that JPI Construction L.P. and six other JPI entities (collectively “JPI”) based in Irving, Texas, discriminated on the basis of disability in the design and construction of multifamily housing complexes throughout the United States.
 
Under the settlement, which was approved today by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, JPI will pay $10,250,000 into an accessibility fund to provide retrofits at properties built by JPI and to increase the stock of accessible housing in the communities where these properties are located.  The settlement also requires JPI to pay a $250,000 civil penalty. 

This is the largest civil penalty the Justice Department has obtained in any Fair Housing Act case.

“Today’s historic settlement demonstrates the Justice Department’s commitment to protecting the fair housing rights of persons with disabilities,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.  “Builders of multifamily housing must consider accessibility at the outset, or they risk significantly greater expense to retrofit properties.  As a result of this settlement, multifamily housing complexes will be retrofitted to comply with the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, and persons with physical disabilities will be afforded an equal opportunity to live in and visit these properties.”

“Equal access to housing for persons with disabilities is an important right protected by federal law,” said U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Sarah R. Saldaña.  “This settlement will help eliminate barriers and send a clear message that disability discrimination will not be tolerated.  Disabled residents should know that this district remains committed to protecting their fair housing rights.”

Apparently, if the convicted felon Donald J. Trump believes that Scott Turner is qualified to be the next HUD Secretary because he works for a company that allegedly ripped off it's workers with wage theft, and works for a company that screwed over people with disabilities at their many rental properties, then this may be of some extreme concern to HUD's employees, and HUD's subsidized housing tenants.

Being picked by the disgraced convicted felon Donald J. Trump to be the next HUD Secretary after being an intern for the disgraced Duncan Hunter, it speaks volumes about the integrity and character of Scott Turner.

Lynda Carson may be reached at newzland2 [at] gmail.com

>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>