HUD Secretary Scott Turner’s visit to Northwest Arkansas on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, aimed to highlight affordable housing initiatives but inadvertently underscored the flaws of Opportunity Zones, a program long touted as an economic savior for distressed communities. Joined by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR), Turner toured housing projects and engaged in discussions that revealed both progress and policy missteps.
Opportunity Zones, introduced under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, were sold as a way to boost investment in struggling areas through tax breaks. In reality, they’ve largely enriched wealthy investors while leaving low-income communities with little to show. A Heritage Foundation report confirms the zones often fund luxury developments or projects that would have happened anyway, with minimal job creation or economic uplift for residents. This misguided policy diverts resources from more effective solutions, wasting taxpayer dollars on what amounts to corporate welfare.
In short, Opportunity zones are the government’s chance to reward its friends with your tax dollars.
Turner outlined HUD’s goals: tackling the housing affordability crisis, reducing homelessness, and streamlining disaster recovery. He advocated for partnerships with nonprofits and faith-based groups, a nod to private-sector solutions over government overreach. (Coming out of this recent legislative session, we feel like a broken record, but this is worth repeating: No law or government intervention is needed for private-sector solutions; it’s about creating entities or programs with taxpayer dollars.)
Opportunity Zones, despite their promise, often funnel resources to politically connected areas, enriching elites while sidelining true economic growth. Workers beyond these zones face unfair competition, burdened by bureaucratic favoritism and special-interest schemes. Evidence proves that broad-based tax cuts, not targeted subsidies, ignite a thriving economy for all Americans.
Lasting progress for struggling communities demands institutional reform and local empowerment, fostering opportunity within a robust national economy — not flawed programs that leave the heartland behind.
