Sec. Scott Turner is restoring “organic reality” on the Division of Housing and City Growth by ensuring males can’t invade female-only shelters, he informed The Day by day Sign in an unique interview.
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“Beneath the Biden administration, they actually ignored organic reality and compelled DEI excessive ideology,” he stated. “And so after we got here into HUD, we not solely eradicated DEI, but additionally need to uphold organic reality and to guard our feminine homeless shelters. And so as a substitute of getting males be capable to enter in to our girls’s shelters, we reduce that out for the safety and the security of girls which might be in HUD-funded shelters.”
Turner introduced a brand new FY2025 Continuum of Care Program Discover of Funding Alternative which cracks down on range, fairness, and inclusion initiatives, gender ideology, and the usage of taxpayer {dollars} on housing for unlawful aliens. The Continuum of Care competitors is the most important single federal homelessness program, offering $3.9 billion in funding.
In a departure from the Biden administration, the discover says that candidates can not depend on nonbinary definitions of intercourse.
“Many occasions, girls go into these shelters and are popping out of home violence and abusive conditions, and so we need to ensure that we defend all of our girls that go into HUD funded shelters and never promote simply permitting males to return in to these shelters,” Turner stated.
“I’ve acquired communications from individuals saying, ‘Thanks,’” he continued. “Individuals need to really feel secure, they’re already in a distressed, determined scenario, and so to to be beneath the specter of additional hurt, we are able to not enable that.”
Final yr’s Continuum of Care Discover of Funding Alternative beneath Biden required grant candidates to think about methods to “deal with the wants of LGBTQ+, transgender, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary people and households of their planning processes.”
“Moreover, when contemplating which tasks to pick out of their native competitors to be included of their utility to HUD, CoCs ought to be certain that all tasks present privateness, respect, security, and entry no matter gender id or sexual orientation,” the discover stated. “CoCs also needs to accomplice with organizations with experience in serving LGBTQ+ populations.
Candidates have been required to be in “compliance with fairness necessities, together with racial fairness and underserved communities and LGBTQ+ necessities.”
Turner beforehand ended the Equal Entry Rule of 2016, which requires equal entry to packages for people based mostly on their gender id, quite than their organic intercourse.
Turner stated HUD is accountable for being steward of taxpayer {dollars} and for conserving individuals in HUD-funded housing secure, and the Biden administration failed at each.
“Beneath the Biden administration, they allowed males into girls’s shelters,” he stated, “and it was inflicting additional disruptions and placing girls beneath additional risk of hurt.”
Whereas the Biden administration pushed faith-based suppliers out of the grant program by mandated adherence to the “Housing First” coverage, President Donald Trump’s HUD is bringing these shelters again into the fold.
The “Housing First” coverage prohibits shelters from mandating sobriety earlier than accepting residents, which is the follow of many faith-based houses.
“Throughout the Biden administration, faith-based organizations have been actually stiff armed when it got here to competing for the Continuum of Care aggressive grants due to their beliefs and due to their convictions,” he stated.
“Religion-based organizations have convictions, like [about] sobriety and drug use, and so due to that, they weren’t allowed to compete for these Continuum of Care funds,” Turner added. “And so what we’ve executed with this [fiscal year 2025] Continuum of Care, aggressive [notice of funding opportunity] is open up the desk to our faith-based organizations, and so we’re not simply concentrating on warehousing homelessness.”
Spiritual liberty legislation agency Alliance Defending Freedom has represented a number of homeless shelters who misplaced funding on account of their religion. Senior counsel at ADF, Matt Bowman, praised Turner’s transfer.
“Spiritual organizations shouldn’t be punished for exercising their freedom to pursue their mission and rent workers in step with their religion,” he informed The Day by day Sign, “so we’re excited that the division plans to guard non secular candidates and likewise to guard girls, as a result of they deserve a spot to sleep the place they will really feel safe.”
Turner stated HUD’s focus isn’t just on housing individuals, however on attending to the foundation of their homelessness with wrap round companies that get them to a lifetime of self-sufficiency.
“Our faith-based organizations across the nation have day in and day trip, for years and actually generations, been those that working with our homeless neighbors to assist them be remodeled,” he stated.
As a result of the Continuum of Care strikes funding from everlasting shelters to transitional housing to encourage eventual self-sufficiency, Democrats have accused Turner of reducing funding for homelessness. Nineteen Democrat attorneys normal and two governors are suing the Trump administration over the change.
However Turner says that is faux information, because the Continuum of Care doesn’t “slash” funding.
“The actual fact is that it’s a rise in funding,” he stated. “It’s a rise in help to go from about $3.6 billion within the final funding discover to $3.9 billion on this new Continuum of Care, aggressive [notice of funding opportunity]. And so it’s not a reduce, it’s a rise. And so I wished to make that clear, as a result of we’ve heard the identical narrative, however these are the details.”
Turner stated HUD is just not designed to be “warehousing our homeless neighborhoods,” however to assist individuals get companies to assault the foundation of the issue.
“Success will now be outlined not by {dollars} spent or housing models crammed, however by how many individuals obtain self sufficiency,” he stated.
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This text was initially revealed at The Day by day Sign. Picture Credit score: Gage Skidmore from Shock, AZ, United States of America – Scott Turner, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=160959013.
