Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner is reinvigorating the private sector’s role in aiding economically distressed areas that have been neglected for decades – including touring areas of Philadelphia that have seen massive development since he served in the first Trump administration.
“The last five years have brought $84 billion of private investment. One million people have gotten lifted off the poverty rolls. Home values and Opportunity Zones have risen, while rents did not go up. And so the Opportunity Zones initiative is not only about economic development, but it’s about community development. Families are able to build brand-new foundations for their lives,” Turner told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview from Philadelphia.
Turner traveled to the City of Brotherly Love on Thursday to meet with local community and business leaders to discuss and tour recently revitalized areas of the city and Opportunity Zone projects, which are defined as economically distressed areas across the nation that incentivize investment and economic development through federal tax benefits to investors. Opportunity Zones were created under the first Trump administration through the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Turner served as the executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during the first Trump administration, as well as led the Opportunity Zones Initiative.
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Secretary Scott Turner tours The Battery in Philadelphia. (Fox Digital )
Now that Turner is serving as the secretary of HUD in the second Trump administration, he previewed his excitement over “Opportunity Zones 2.0” that will make the program “even better than before.”
“I’m very excited about the extension, the continuation of Opportunity Zones. And Opportunity Zones 2.0, if you will, and my estimation will be even better. So I’m looking forward to…
