In late February, the federal government abruptly cut funding to dozens of organizations that fight housing discrimination across the country, threatening their survival and dealing a setback to civil rights enforcement efforts in the United States, fair housing advocates say.
More than 160 groups nationwide rely on federal funding to investigate and file complaints on behalf of people who think they have been denied housing because of disability, race, sex, national origin, religion, or because they have children. In some states, including California, fair housing organizations also represent people who suspect they’ve been discriminated against because they pay rent with government housing assistance, like Section 8 vouchers.
“I was shocked,” said Caroline Peattie, executive director of Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California, who received notice that her organization’s grant funding had ended abruptly.
Housing discrimination is illegal under the landmark Fair Housing Act of 1968. But the law has no teeth if advocates don’t have the resources to enforce it, Peattie said. The current administration appears to have targeted fair housing programs for deep cuts, despite their relatively low cost. Housing advocates worry the cuts will mean they won’t be able to pursue discrimination cases and that some fair housing groups will have to cease operating altogether.
Peattie received a notice from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development that said “HUD is terminating this award because it no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities.”
“This affects us, and our ability to be a viable organization that can provide housing services to communities that we serve,” Peattie said. “There was no warning whatsoever.”
Last month, Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California was among 78 grantees that got sudden notice that they’d no longer receive funding, said Nikitra Bailey, executive vice president of the National Fair Housing Association, whose members include fair housing groups nationwide.
The total cost of the canceled grants is estimated at $12.1 million, Bailey said, or less than a half-percent of Housing and Urban Development’s total $255 billion budget for fiscal 2025.
A HUD spokesperson wrote in an email, “The Department is responsible for ensuring our grantees and contractors are in compliance with the President’s Executive Orders. If we determine they are not in compliance, then we are required to take action.”
Trump’s executive orders have targeted programs that mention diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility across the federal government. However, fair housing advocates aren’t sure how their programs conflict with the orders.
The HUD spokesperson didn’t explain why the canceled grants might have violated executive orders and didn’t answer a follow-up email asking for specific examples of noncompliance on the part of the agencies whose contracts were canceled. Peattie said she had not been notified that her organization was noncompliant.
Housing discrimination is especially common in cities like New York and Los Angeles where vacancy rates are low and competition for apartments is stiff. “So our concern,” Peattie said, “is that as things get tighter in the rental markets, we will start to see more cases of housing discrimination.”
The budget cuts send a message, said Jasmine Perry, a home health aide in the San Francisco Bay Area, who was denied housing and filed a discrimination complaint through Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California nearly two years ago.
“It gives the people who denied me the okay to keep doing what they’re doing and to do it more. It’s really sad,” Perry said.
Landlords repeatedly rejected Perry’s rental applications as she searched for an apartment in Santa Rosa, north of San Francisco. Perry, who is Black, suspected discrimination based on her race or because she planned to use a Section 8 rent subsidy to pay her rent.
Section 8 is the nation’s largest housing assistance program for low-income people—it provides a subsidy that tenants can use in any apartment, provided rents don’t exceed limits set by local housing authorities.
Perry finally obtained the voucher after 11 years on a waiting list, and she had just 90 days to use it before it expired. She turned to Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California, which investigated and found that the management of one apartment building where she was rejected welcomed applicants without subsidies while discouraging those with them.
Perry won a $37,000 settlement from the building management. She said her experience with filing a discrimination complaint showed her that “I have rights. I can exercise my rights.”
Bailey of the National Fair Housing Association would not say how her group would respond to the funding cuts. However, some members of the organization’s leadership are currently appealing to members of Congress to restore the funding.
Even groups that have not received notices of grant cancellations are on edge. In Southern California, the Long Beach-based Fair Housing Foundation told Capital & Main in an email that its funding remained intact. Likewise, funding had not been cut at the Fair Housing Council of Orange County. But the group’s David Levy wrote, “We are still monitoring the situation as we believe we could still get a notice of cancellation.” And Levy worries about funding for the coming year. “The grant cancellations have now called into question whether the new administration will fund [fair housing] grants at all.”
In an email to Capital & Main, a HUD spokesperson said, “The Department will continue to serve the American people, including those facing housing discrimination or eviction. When the Department puts out a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) any eligible organization is invited to apply.”
But the administration has given other indications that fair housing programs could be on the chopping block at Housing and Urban Development—and employees of the department are also stressed.
An internal document—obtained by the American Federation of Government Employees Council 222, which represents HUD workers, and viewed by Capital & Main—shows the agency plans to slash fair housing staff positions within the agency by more than 75%. Union president Antonio Gaines said the document is unofficial, and is derived from multiple sources that have proven to be reliable in the past.
In early February, a web page describing the types of discrimination covered under the Fair Housing Act disappeared from the HUD website. It was replaced with a “page not found” message but the page is currently accessible on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
“There is a perpetual state of fear, anxiety, fear of retaliation or reprisal, anxiety, every other distressful terminology that you can use can be applied to the environment,” Gaines said.
—By Robin Urevich, Capital & Main
This piece was originally published by Capital & Main, which reports from California on economic, political, and social issues.
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