'We Are Missing An Opportunity': Cindy Hyde-Smith Presses Scott Turner On Mass Timber Housing

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]Thank you, ma'am.

[00:00:01]>> Thank you.

[00:00:04]Secretary Turner, Mhm. you know, I've always been interested in mass timber and across the country, we obviously if we've discussed many times insufficient housing and rising cost have created housing challenges and contributed to the growing housing crisis.

[00:00:19]Tackling housing affordability successfully requires producing more housing, which in turn involves a combination of local zoning decisions, as well as scaling up the use of non-traditional building materials, especially when it comes to the use of mass timber.

[00:00:37]Mass timber multi-family housing is demonstrating an ability to lower construction cost and reduce the time it takes to build, which makes an ideal approach for helping increase affordable housing production throughout the country. However, I'm concerned that most of the thinking around mass timber is happening as a resource management issue at USDA Forest Service and that we are missing an opportunity on the housing side to promote and incorporate the actual use of mass timber and getting this started.

[00:01:09]Mr. Secretary, how can HUD better collaborate with the Forest Service, university research, state forest commission, and mostly important builders and developers to make mass timber multi-family housing a more mainstream building choice? Well, thank [clears throat] you, Chairwoman Hightower Smith, and as you know, I'm familiar with the mass timber to CLT project product, I'm sorry, and working with the Secretary of Agriculture and Forest Service and your office will more willing to do so to make sure the use of this mass timber, which is a great product that I'm familiar with in building multi-family. So, happy to hear your suggestions and working with USDA and our Forest Service program.

[00:01:53]Thank you for that, and I, like you, was very proud to join the First Lady in supporting the housing needs of youth exiting foster care so they're not forced into homelessness. We've seen this so many times across college campuses and many other places.

[00:02:09]And I would be remiss not to acknowledge the truly transformative role that Chair Collins has played in this initiative and the broader response to youth homelessness.

[00:02:20]Ensuring successful partnerships with child welfare agencies providing housing support without creating housing dependency is certainly an approach that we should try and replicate as often as possible.

[00:02:34]Mr. Secretary, your budget request includes proposals to clarify eligibility and to allow for the reallocation of funds that no longer have an identified need. Based on the conversations and roundtables you have had with youth, could you explain why these changes are needed?

[00:02:54]Yes, ma'am. And it has uh been a great privilege to travel around and meet with our foster youth and partner with yourself and and other members, Senator Collins, and the First Lady in taking care of our foster youth as they age out of the foster care system. As I said, you know, many of them end up homeless. A quarter of them, if you will, end up homeless after aging out. And so we want to make sure that those foster youth that are in need of these housing vouchers to land on their feet have them. Every state is different. Some states use more uh some use less as you know, but we have been working in great collaboration across the country and continue to work with your office and the First Lady to make sure that our foster youth are taken care of.

[00:03:34]Thank you for that. And uh Mr. Secretary, as you know, successful affordable housing projects often need to take advantage of multiple funding and financing resources to get the overall picture done. There's many ways to get there and it can uh look different in every circumstance. This could take the form of grants, loans, tax credits, and other incentives. As a former executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during President Trump's first term, I know that you are deeply familiar with one of the better ways to incentivize investments, opportunity zones, an idea championed by Senator Tim Scott.

[00:04:15]These opportunity zones are almost exclusively census tracts that include low-income communities with higher poverty rates, lower medium incomes, and a greater need for economic revitalization.

[00:04:29]Mr. Secretary, there are 100 opportunity zones in Mississippi. And while I do not expect you to know the particulars of any specific one in my state, I am curious to hear from you how an opportunity zone designation, in combination with other funding financing financing sources, can increase the affordability housing supply for states like mine.

[00:04:53]Yes, ma'am. Thank you for your question.

[00:04:55]So, opportunity zones, as you know, have been very transformative in our country.

[00:04:58]And the simple of it is that public-private partnerships really are what make opportunity zones successful.

[00:05:04]And so, I'm looking forward to the continuation and the permanency of opportunity zones in our country as it pertains to operating businesses and creating more affordable homes. So, public-private partnerships are crucial and key in opportunity zones.

[00:05:20]Thank you for putting those pieces together cuz that is so critical as we well know. Thank you for that answer.

[00:05:26]Now, Senator Murray, you're recognized for your questions. Thank you very much.