HUD Pauses Anti-DEI Rules After Multiple Lawsuits

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has suspended the application process for the Continuum of Care grant program as the agency contends with two lawsuits challenging new grant criteria that make drastic cuts to funding for permanent housing and include language that could restrict funding for agencies that acknowledge the existence of transgender and nonbinary people, reports Katherine Hapgood for Politico.

“The two suits challenge a policy change by HUD Secretary Scott Turner which mandates that only 30 percent of the agency’s Continuum of Care funding can be used for permanent housing, down from roughly 90 percent,” Hapgood explains. Housing providers say the cuts, and the last-minute changes to grant requirements, will strain their resources and limit their ability to provide services to long-term clients.

HUD withdrew its notice for grant proposals less than two hours before a Monday court hearing on the cases. U.S. District Judge Mary S. McElroy said “This sort of haphazard approach to administrative law is the problem” and “ordered the government to submit new arguments by next week addressing the last-minute change.”

The agency says it will reissue the funding notice with “technical corrections.” Hapgood adds, “HUD employees were expected to work this week to open the application process under the new funding requirements but the policy change being withdrawn caught HUD employees by surprise, according to two agency employees granted anonymity to discuss internal communication.”