Local governments file second lawsuit challenging Trump administration’s attacks on homelessness funding

Providence, R.I. – Today, five local governments challenged the Trump administration’s latest attempt to reshape federal homelessness funding. Although a court previously blocked similar unlawful restrictions, the administration is once again imposing changes that could push tens of thousands of people out of permanent housing and back into homelessness.

The filing in National Alliance to End Homelessness et al v. Turner et al asks the court to block HUD’s 2026 grant notice for the Continuum of Care (CoC) program. CoC is the nation’s more than $4 billion program to support efforts to end homelessness. The new notice includes many of the same provisions that a court recently blocked in last year’s funding notice. 

“Communities across the country have spent years building housing programs that work,” said Toby Merrill, litigation director at Public Rights Project. “HUD can’t arbitrarily rewrite the rules in ways that threaten stability for tens of thousands of people. These federal dollars are taxpayer dollars — and they should support solutions that work over political ideology that pushes more people toward homelessness.”

In the new notice, HUD sets aside $1.3 billion — nearly a third of all available funding — for new projects only, even though Congress required those funds to be available for renewals. As a result, many successful permanent housing projects can’t compete for those funds and are at dire risk of losing funding.

HUD also requires grantees to comply with conditions unrelated to homelessness, including abandoning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; rejecting transgender and nonbinary people’s identities; and helping enforce federal immigration law.

Public Rights Project is representing the cities of Boston, Cambridge, Nashville and Tucson in partnership with Democracy Forward, Santa Clara County and other partners.

Read the lawsuit here.

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