WASHINGTON—A federal judge has blocked the Trump Administration from overhauling a long-standing program that funds nonprofit groups investigating and combating housing discrimination, finding the Department of Housing and Urban Development failed to provide a reasoned explanation for the “sweeping changes,” Reuters reported.
U.S. District Judge Myong Joun ordered HUD to distribute fiscal 2025 funding through the structure used in fiscal 2024. The decision came less than five weeks before the money was set to expire. Joun said HUD’s description of the overhaul as a modernization effort “falls woefully short of the mark in both form and substance.”
HUD planned to direct $46 million of the $56 million Congress appropriated for the Fair Housing Initiatives Program to five grants—including $25 million for one law school—rather than award more than 100 grants generally ranging from $75,000 to $425,000. Another $10 million could have gone to a state or local agency, Reuters reported. The new requirements also would have barred grant money from supporting “gender ideology” or “illegal immigration.”
The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by the National Fair Housing Alliance and the Massachusetts Fair Housing Center. The alliance said the changes threatened more than 100 community-based organizations that enforce the Fair Housing Act. Lila Miller, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said the decision “rightfully recognizes the stakes at issue and protects the rule of law.”