Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on Thursday pressed Secretary Scott Turner on why the Department of Housing and Urban Development hasn’t released data on the national population of homeless people.
HUD released its Annual Homelessness Assessment report, which gave the most sweeping analysis of the problem, for each year until 2024. But the report for 2025 has still not been released, making it the longest in more than a decade that it has gone without releasing the data.
“I want to see the results. Where is the homeless data report?” Gillibrand asked Turner at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. “It is over a year late, and that would give us the data to see if your theory about how to address homelessness actually works.”
Turner dismissed her concern about the report and attributed the delay to last year’s government shutdown, constant litigation the department has been involved in and former President Joe Biden.
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“I thank God that I’m in charge so we can do stuff different,” Turner responded. “I have been here a little bit over a year, but you all had during the Biden administration four years.”
Gillibrand raised her voice and interrupted Turner to push him on his record.
“What is your record? You’ve had this job for well over a year. I just want to know, did you get the number down?” she asked. “Do we have 700,000 homeless or is it a million?”
“Stop talking about Biden,” Gillibrand said later in the exchange. “Talk about your record.”
Gillibrand also didn’t accept Turner’s pointing to litigation as a reason for the report not being out.
“Mr. Secretary, I think you’re obfuscating,” Gillibrand said. “What way does litigation slow down your report?”
HUD did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the status of the report.
As head of HUD, Turner has pushed to cut what he calls “wasteful spending” and to defund “federal welfare programs.” On Thursday, he reiterated those arguments and said that the “failed” policies needed to change.
“This is so inaccurate, unhelpful, and doesn’t let this committee do our job,” Gillibrand said in response to the secretary’s continued mention of the Biden administration.
The last report released by HUD, covering 2024, said that more than 770,000 people were counted as experiencing homelessness on a single night of January that year.
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Correction: This article has been updated to reflect when the report has been released in the past.
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