NFHA Commends U.S. Senators for Demanding HUD Fund Fair Housing Enforcement as Congress Directed
Lawmakers urge HUD to reverse changes that threaten funding for local fair housing organizations serving communities nationwide
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) today commended 32 U.S. Senators for issuing a letter demanding that HUD Secretary Scott Turner rescind the agency’s FY 2025 and FY 2026 Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) funding notices and spend appropriated funds to support fair housing activities as Congress intended. HUD revamped the criteria for FHIP to strip funding from the local nonprofit fair housing enforcement organizations that handle more than 74 percent of the nation’s housing discrimination complaints.
“We are profoundly grateful to these Senators for their willingness to demand justice for victims of housing discrimination,” said Lisa Rice, NFHA President and CEO. “Their support for the private, nonprofit qualified fair housing enforcement agencies serving people harmed by discrimination — veterans, seniors, families with children, people impacted by racial discrimination, and survivors of domestic violence and sexual harassment — is vital. Congress funded this work, and HUD must follow the law.”
This is the latest step in a series of actions HUD has taken to systematically defund fair housing organizations and renege on its obligation to enforce the nation’s fair housing laws. HUD has tried multiple times to defund these community-based civil rights groups, even though Congress created FHIP precisely to fund these organizations. NFHA, which has had to sue HUD two earlier times in the Trump Administration over failure to administer FHIP properly, is suing them again, with a hearing scheduled for next week in a district court in Massachusetts.
The Trump Administration has also moved to stop enforcing the law and advancing fair housing throughout the nation, including severely cutting staff in HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, refusing to act on discrimination complaints, undermining fair housing enforcement, and seeking to reverse redlining settlements and give financial institutions back the penalties they paid to compensate for discriminatory conduct.
The Senators’ letter follows reporting that HUD Assistant Secretary Craig Trainor sent staff an internal email announcing an “organizational transformation” of the agency’s fair housing work. The email quoted President Trump’s remarks during a 250th U.S. anniversary event invoking the “ancestral liberties and ancient rights of the Anglo-Saxons” and the “first Americans.” Trainor added that HUD’s work is “part of that noble tradition.” The Fair Housing Act, however, protects all people in the country regardless of race or national origin.
For media inquiries: contact JGlover@NationalFairHousing.org.
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About the National Fair Housing Alliance
The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) leads a coalition that works to build inclusive, well-resourced, and resilient communities; expand equitable opportunities; and end housing discrimination.