Trump’s HUD Secretary Scott Turner says Philly Council must ease building rules if Mayor Cherelle Parker is to achieve her housing goal

U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner visited Philadelphia on Thursday and said City Council should cut red tape that makes it harder to build new housing, potentially amplifying Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s recent request for lawmakers to cede some control over redevelopment projects as part of her plan to build or preserve 30,000 homes.

“For Philadelphia and the mayor’s plan to build 30,000 more units, the local City Council, the local decision-makers have to really make a decision to say, ‘You know what, we need to ease the regulatory environment,’” said Turner, who was appointed by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate last month. “When we unleash the creativity of private developers and take down the regulatory environment, then you will see the housing supply increase.”

Calls to ease zoning rules and other restrictions on housing development have grown from both sides of the aisle in recent years as the country has struggled to recover from the housing supply deficit following the 2008 financial crisis. But those reform efforts often run into headwinds from local elected officials responding to constituents’ concerns about the impacts of new development, including fears of a lack of parking or property value decreases caused by new apartment buildings or public housing.

» READ MORE: Mayor Parker wants City Council members to give up a little power over land. They don’t love the idea.

Nowhere is that dynamic more evident than in Philadelphia, where lawmakers abide by the unwritten rule known as councilmanic prerogative, through which individual district Council members wield near-unilateral control over many land-use decisions in their territories. Critics say the tradition has led to a confusing patchwork of zoning rules and stymies development because builders often need the blessing of politicians to move forward.

Parker, herself a former district Council member, said in a high-profile address to Council on Monday that she is not trying to end prerogative through her housing plan — but that she is asking lawmakers to help streamline transactions that often get bogged down by the City Hall custom. She proposed working with Council members to make lists of city-owned properties in their districts that could be preapproved for sale and redevelopment.

The idea met resistance immediately.

“I guess if you’re mayor, perhaps” it is a good idea, Councilmember Mike Driscoll said. “If you’re a district councilman, I would say no.”

For Turner, it’s evident local lawmakers need to cut regulations.

“We have a housing affordability crisis in our country. We need about seven million units of housing in totality, be it single-family, multifamily duplex, manufactured housing,” said Turner, a former NFL player and Republican Texas state representative. “I’m encouraging all localities, all mayors and city councils and those with decision-making power to really take inventory of your regulatory environment and see if it’s crippling or if it’s enhancing your ability to build affordable housing.”

Asked about Turner’s comments, Council President Kenyatta Johnson defended lawmakers’ involvement in development decisions.

“We want to work in partnership with the administration,” Johnson told reporters Thursday, “but members reserve the right to make sure the projects are being inclusive but most importantly that the neighborhood and the residents within the neighborhoods have a say-so in the development projects that are taking place inside the community.”

A Parker spokesperson declined to comment.

Turner on Thursday morning met with officials from the Philadelphia Housing Authority, an independent entity that gets 93% of its funding from the federal government. Later in the day, he was scheduled to meet Parker and tour the Riverview Wellness Village, a newly opened facility in Holmesburg that is a key component of the mayor’s efforts to end open-air drug markets in Kensington and other neighborhoods.

Turner largely dodged questions about whether the Trump administration’s sweeping funding cuts are likely to affect PHA or Parker’s housing plan, which is primarily financed by $800 million in city bonds but also includes some federal funding.

“That’s a question I’ve received a lot,” he said, adding that HUD was tightening its belt but declining to offer specifics.

» READ MORE: Mayor Cherelle Parker unveils housing plan amid Trump’s federal funding cuts and Council skepticism

“We understand what our mission is, and our critical functions are continuing to happen,” he said. “We also are taking inventory of HUD to make sure that we’re being very deliberate and detailed about every dollar going out of Housing and Urban Development because we know that this is taxpayer money. We know that hardworking taxpayers want us to be good stewards.”

Since Trump took office in January, HUD has reportedly moved to slash its budget, target unauthorized immigrants living in public housing, and, critics say, weaken rules meant to prevent housing discrimination. In addition to federal housing support, HUD administers several major federal funding sources that cities rely on, including Community Development Block Grants.

In a presentation to Turner and his aides, PHA president and CEO Kelvin A. Jeremiah sought to highlight how grants authorized under the tenure of Ben Carson, the HUD secretary in Trump’s first term, were key to PHA’s signature modern public housing development in the Sharswood neighborhood of North Philadelphia.

“The [Trump] administration’s faith in the Sharswood transformation plan at a time when frankly the local folks didn’t believe in it was extraordinary,” Jeremiah said. “The money that we’ve received, you will see, was put to very good use.”

Jeremiah led Turner on a tour of the Grocery Outlet store that is part of the Sharswood development and a PHA housing unit.

“Sharswood is an example of how federal and local partners can work together to make America’s cities great again,” Jeremiah said.

Staff writer Jake Blumgart contributed to this article.