New York Metropolis and 7 different native governments throughout the nation have sued President Trump’s Division of Housing and City Improvement (HUD), accusing the federal company of inserting unconstitutional and coercive situations on essential housing grants.
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New York Metropolis and 7 different native governments throughout the nation have sued President Trump’s Division of Housing and City Improvement (HUD), accusing the federal company of inserting unconstitutional and coercive situations on essential housing grants.
Filed within the U.S. District Court docket for the Western District of Washington and led by King County, WA, the lawsuit introduced Friday evening argues that the brand new situations imposed on HUD’s Continuum of Care grants are an illegal overreach of govt authority. The plaintiffs contend that solely Congress has the ability to alter funding phrases for federal packages.
Regardless of that, the Trump administration added a number of controversial situations to grants masking Fiscal Yr 2024, which HUD awarded in January 2025. These situations—deemed unlawful by the plaintiffs—tie funding to compliance with Trump’s stances on immigration, reproductive well being, “gender ideology” and anti-discrimination insurance policies.
Housing grant calls for are ‘illegal’
“Cities cannot be coerced into adopting federal policies through unlawful conditions on grant funding,” mentioned New York Metropolis Company Counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant in saying town’s lawsuit towards President Trump’s Division of Housing and City Improvement (HUD).Ed Reed/Mayoral Images Workplace
New York Metropolis was awarded greater than $53.5 million in Continuum of Care funding, earmarked for nonprofit suppliers of everlasting supportive housing. These funds serve a few of the metropolis’s most weak populations, together with these experiencing power homelessness, dwelling with HIV/AIDS, or dealing with extreme psychological well being or substance use challenges.
Officers warn that the lack of these funds would jeopardize housing stability for greater than 2,700 households. If broader cuts destabilize town’s total homeless service infrastructure, town warns, hundreds extra could possibly be affected.
“Cities cannot be coerced into adopting federal policies through unlawful conditions on grant funding,” mentioned New York Metropolis Company Counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant. “The new conditions the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has placed on congressionally-approved and previously awarded housing grants to New York City are illegal under longstanding constitutional and statutory principles.”
New York utilized to resume its present grants in response to HUD’s funding discover for Fiscal Yr 2024. On Jan. 17 of this yr, town’s Division of Housing Preservation and Improvement (HPD) was awarded 40 grants totaling over $53 million to offer rental help to households in want.
Three of these grants, value over $3.2 million and masking 169 everlasting supportive housing models, have been set to start on Could 1, 2025. These grants embody the newly imposed situations on the coronary heart of the lawsuit.
The lawsuit additionally challenges a clause that might enable HUD to withhold as much as 3 times the worth of the grants based mostly on imprecise or undefined violations. Metropolis officers warn this might additional destabilize essential housing providers.
The coalition of cities and counties plans to hunt a brief restraining order subsequent week to stop HUD from imposing the contested grant situations whereas the case proceeds.
