Judge orders HUD to halt changes to secure housing grant program

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A federal judge ruled that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) must maintain a program to provide secure housing, temporarily preventing thousands of vulnerable Marylanders from losing their homes.

“This ruling keeps roofs over the heads of more than 4,000 Marylanders who were at risk of going homeless under the administration’s inhumane policy,” Attorney General Anthony Brown, a Democrat, said of Monday’s ruling in a statement. “This is an important first step in this case, and we’ll keep fighting until these unlawful changes are permanently blocked.”

Brown, along with a coalition of 20 attorneys general and two governors, sued HUD last month after the agency announced funding changes to its Continuum of Care grant program. Continuum of Care was developed to eliminate homelessness across the country. Its model involves equipping nonprofits, states, local governments, and Native American and tribal entities with federal funding to help relocate people fleeing domestic and dating violence, sexual assault and stalking.

In the lawsuit, Brown alleged that HUD would be violating the congressional intent of the Continuum of Care program by aggressively cutting its budget for permanent housing, penalizing housing providers who recognize gender diversity and establishing provisions that would punish them for offering housing in localities that do not strictly enforce anti-homeless policies.

Brown and the coalition argued that HUD’s actions were arbitrary and capricious, noting that the agency did not explain why it was changing longstanding policies, did not consider the consequences of abruptly cutting funding for formerly unhoused individuals, violated the law for not following Congress‘ program timeline and introduced changes without authorization.

U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy granted a preliminary injunction preventing HUD from implementing these new conditions. She directed the agency to process applications under the terms applied prior to the Trump administration‘s changes.

In November, the administration declared its intention to slash $46 million from the federal allocation Maryland receives to operate its Continuum of Care program, putting 2,400 Maryland households — including 4,300 adults and 1,900 children — at risk of losing their homes.

Secretary Jake Day of Maryland’s Department of Housing and Community Development said that proposed funding cuts would cause homelessness to surge by 25% across the state.

“With no available vouchers, no surplus of affordable units, and no alternatives to absorb this massive displacement, the vast majority will be forced straight back into homelessness,” Day said last month. “It will reverse decades of progress to reduce unsheltered homelessness. It will force domestic violence survivors to return to abusive households and unaccompanied youth to couchsurf with strangers.”