Press Release  AG Campbell Secures Court Order Blocking HUD Policy That Would Put More People Into Homelessness

BOSTON — Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell today announced that a federal judge from the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island has ordered the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to preliminarily halt changes to its Continuum of Care grant program – the largest resource for federal homelessness assistance funding – after a coalition of 22 states argued that the changes were illegal and would leave tens of thousands of people around the country without a place to live. 

In her ruling, the judge barred HUD from implementing its proposed changes to the Continuum of Care program and directed HUD to process applications under the terms that existed prior to its unlawful program changes. 

“Helping Massachusetts residents secure stable housing builds a foundation for addressing other urgent challenges like job training, mental health care, and substance use treatment,” said AG Campbell. “Today’s court order ensures that the federal government cannot stand in the way of helping us address our critical housing crisis. We’ll continue to fight back against this Administration’s cruel and illegal policies that harm our residents and impede our progress.” 

AG Campbell and the coalition sued HUD in November for illegally upending support for people experiencing housing insecurity or homelessness by abruptly rescinding a necessary Notice of Funding, replacing it with another notice that limited funding that could be used for long-term housing and other services. The lawsuit says HUD drastically changed the Continuum of Care grant program in violation of congressional intent by sharply reducing funding for permanent housing and putting unlawful conditions on access to the funding. 

The illegal conditions include penalizing housing providers that recognize gender identity and diversity and mandating that residents agree to additional program services to obtain housing. HUD also added illegal conditions to punish housing providers in regions that do not enforce strict anti-homeless laws and disadvantage programs that address mental disabilities and substance use disorder. Those conditions contradict HUD’s previous guidance and were not authorized by Congress. The Notice of Funding was also issued well after HUD’s congressionally mandated deadline for making program changes, virtually guaranteeing gaps in funding. 

There are 11 Continuum of Care programs in Massachusetts that receive over $136 million in funding each year from HUD to support housing and supportive service programs for nearly 4,000 chronically homeless, homeless, and disabled families and individuals. The programs serve our state’s most vulnerable populations, including veterans, elders, people living with HIV and AIDS, runaway youth, domestic violence survivors, children, and families. 

In their complaint, the coalition argued that HUD’s actions were arbitrary and capricious, as HUD made no effort to explain the abandonment of its own longstanding policies, failed to reckon with the obvious consequences of abruptly terminating funding for housing occupied by formerly homeless families and individuals, and violated the law by not following the timeline Congress set for this program and not receiving congressional authorization for these new conditions. The plaintiffs also argued that HUD violated its own regulations by not engaging in rulemaking before issuing the changes. 

Joining AG Campbell in filing the lawsuit were the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

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