Politically Motivated Criteria Withholds Needed Resources from States, Localities, and Service Providers to Advance a Partisan Agenda  

Rhode Island — The National Alliance to End Homelessness and Women’s Development Corporation filed a lawsuit today, as well as a motion for a temporary restraining order against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and HUD Secretary Scott Turner. The suit challenges new funding restrictions that unlawfully condition access to federal housing grants on compliance with the Trump-Vance administration’s partisan agenda. Plaintiffs are represented by Democracy Forward, National Homelessness Law Center, Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island, and ACLU Foundation of Rhode Island.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, asserts that HUD’s newly imposed criteria for “Continuum of Care (CoC) Builds” grants are unconstitutional and unlawful. This is the third time that HUD has issued this same grant opportunity, even after grant awards had already been announced to Congress. In so doing, HUD has introduced extreme political criteria to the application. Under the new funding application rules, service providers and communities are blocked from applying for federal housing funds for new Permanent Supportive Housing for individuals and families experiencing homelessness if they operate in jurisdictions with policies the Trump-Vance administration disfavors. This includes states and cities with sanctuary protections; those that provide services considered “harm reduction,” such as Safe Drug Use Criteria practices; or those that have inclusive policies for transgender people.

For more than three decades, the federal government has supported housing providers and communities through HUD’s homelessness programs to help people experiencing homelessness move into stable housing. Plaintiffs argue that HUD’s sudden reversal of the previously released funding opportunity unlawfully weaponizes federal funding to coerce jurisdictions and providers into advancing the administration’s unrelated policy agenda.

“The work to end homelessness is not partisan, and it never should be,” said Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. “Permanent Supportive Housing is an essential resource for re-housing those with the greatest needs. Withholding it from communities for political reasons is unconscionable, unconstitutional, and unaligned with the goal of serving vulnerable Americans. These actions will harm entire communities at a time when there is more pressure than ever to address chronic and unsheltered homelessness, and it signals the potential for further political interference in the work to get people off the streets. It cannot be allowed to continue.”

“Attaching political considerations to competitive funding programs means we won’t be able to continue to provide the critical services our communities need,” said Frank Shea, Executive Director of Women’s Development Corporation. “By implementing jurisdictional criteria that a non-profit applicant doesn’t control, the administration is drawing lines around towns and entire states that will no longer be able to compete for federal funding.” 

“This is an unlawful attempt to hold lifesaving housing resources hostage to an ideological agenda,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “These federal housing funds exist to help people experiencing homelessness — not to punish states, localities, and service providers for meeting people where they are. We are proud to represent the National Alliance to End Homelessness and Women’s Development Corporation in challenging these dangerous and unlawful conditions.”

“More people are sleeping outside than ever before because there is not enough housing that people can afford,” said Jesse Rabinowitz, a spokesperson for the National Homelessness Law Center. “Instead of meeting the needs of vulnerable individuals and families, this administration has abruptly and unlawfully manipulated a grantmaking process to build more housing that people can afford to force an ideological agenda that will only make homelessness worse. The Law Center is honored to represent the National Alliance to End Homelessness to ensure federal funds are used for their intended purpose – to solve homelessness.”   

“Instead of addressing the needs of individuals and families experiencing homelessness, as Congress intended, the Administration is using these funds as a political tool to punish communities that support all of us, regardless of our country of origin, our gender identity, or our mental health needs,” said Amy Romero, Chief Legal Counsel for Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island.

“Rhode Island is facing a severe housing crisis, and the Women’s Development Corporation could help address it with federal funding,” said Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU of Rhode Island. “Yet the Trump administration would rather deny that funding and then rail against those who are unhoused. This is just their latest effort to exacerbate the very problem they pretend to want to solve. We are hopeful that the court will reject this blatant ideological distortion of the grant process.”

The case, National Alliance to End Homelessness v. Turner, et al., asks the court to block HUD’s unlawful funding restrictions and restore fair access to federal housing funds for providers nationwide. 

Read the complaint here.