Judge Halts New Federal Housing Rules

by Staff Report

HARTFORD, CT — A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to halt changes to its Continuum of Care grant program — the largest resource for federal homelessness assistance funding — after a coalition of states argued in court that the changes were illegal and would leave tens of thousands of people around the country without a place to live.

Attorney General William Tong called the changes “drastic and cruel” and said they would have thrown people out on the streets.

“We sued, and we just won a court order blocking Trump from arbitrarily upending homelessness assistance,” Tong said Friday.

In her order orally granting a preliminary injunction, U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy enjoined HUD from implementing or enforcing its proposed changes and instructed HUD to maintain the status quo until it issues notice of a new funding opportunity that complies with the law and the court’s order, Tong said.

In November, a coalition of attorneys general, including Tong, sued HUD claiming the department illegally upended support for people experiencing housing insecurity or homelessness by abruptly rescinding a necessary program notice, replacing it with another that limited access to long-term housing and other services. The lawsuit claimed HUD drastically changed its Continuum of Care grant program in violation of congressional intent by sharply reducing funding for permanent housing and putting unlawful conditions on access to the funding.

The illegal conditions claimed in the lawsuit include penalizing housing providers that recognize gender identity and diversity and mandating residents agree to additional conditions to obtain housing.

HUD also added illegal conditions to punish providers in localities that do not enforce strict anti-homeless laws and disadvantage programs that address mental disabilities and substance use disorder, according to the lawsuit. Those conditions go against HUD’s previous guidance and were not authorized by Congress. The program notice was also issued well after HUD’s congressionally mandated deadline for making program changes, virtually guaranteeing gaps in funding, the suit stated.

In their complaint, 20 attorneys general and two governors argued that HUD’s actions were arbitrary and capricious, as HUD made no effort to explain the abandonment of its own long standing policies, failed to reckon with the obvious consequences of abruptly terminating funding for housing occupied by formerly homeless families and individuals, and violated the law by not following the timeline Congress set for this program and not receiving congressional authorization for these new conditions. 

The plaintiffs also argued HUD violated its own regulations by not engaging in rulemaking before issuing the changes.

The lawsuit is led by Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha. They are joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Wisconsin, and the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.