A coalition of nonprofits and local governments is celebrating a legal victory that blocks the Trump administration’s latest effort to disrupt funding that helps people escape homelessness.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the city of Cambridge, Mass., and King County, Wash., were among the plaintiffs to file suit last September to stop the federal government from limiting the scope of subsidized housing grants issued to cities and states, and to do so without the public notice and input required by Congress.
The litigation was sparked by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development intention to limit the scope and funding of Continuum of Care, a $3.5 billion program that provides housing grants to cities and states to address homelessness in local communities.
The administration wanted instead to use the already awarded funds for shelters and other short-term housing options coupled with work requirements and penalties for programs serving immigrants, transgender people and those with mental illnesses.
In December, a federal judge granted preliminary relief blocking HUD from implementing the changes. That order was upheld in April by the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals.
However, further attempts by the administration to alter the grant program resulted in an Aug. 7 order by U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Rhode Island rejecting HUD’s “unorthodox” and “tortured reading” of relevant federal law and denying it the “discretion to create new programs” without adequate public notice and response.
McElroy’s ruling also applied to State of Washington, et al., v. HUD, a similar action filed in November 2025 by a group of state attorneys general and two governors opposed to HUD’s proposed alteration of the Continuum of Care program.
Tony LoPresti
“HUD’s repeated attempts to ignore decades-old, evidence-based approaches to combatting homelessness risk doing immense harm to our communities,” said Tony LoPresti, legal counsel for Santa Clara County, Calif., one of the plaintiffs in National Homeless Alliance v. HUD. “If HUD wants to move in a different direction, it has to follow the required steps that provide for transparency and public input. It has completely failed to take those steps. We will continue to go to court to remind HUD that we live in a nation of laws.”
Preserving the grant program is vital to the most vulnerable community members, Cambridge City Manager Yi-An Huang said: “Disrupting these critical resources would have meant more families not having a place to sleep, more individuals left without stability or care, and a deeper strain on our community that is already working tirelessly to protect its most vulnerable.”
Yi-An Huang
McElroy’s order overcomes unlawful barriers and upholds the dignity of America’s response to homelessness, said Renee Wills, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
“Everyone — regardless of income status — deserves the dignity and security of a safe and stable home, and today’s ruling brings us closer to that goal,” she said.
Ann Oliva
The decision demonstrates that the Trump administration has repeatedly failed to meet its responsibility to effectively combat homelessness, said Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. “Communities across this nation — in states both red and blue — rely on the federal government to support smart, strategic, lawful and evidence-based funding opportunities to support their efforts to end homelessness.”
The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Rhode Island, Democracy Forward, the National Homelessness Law Center and the Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island represented the plaintiffs in the National Homeless Alliance case.
“This is an important victory to protect key federal support for people trying to secure housing,” said Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman. “The housing and safety of hundreds of thousands of people was cruelly put in jeopardy by an administration that refuses to abide by the law and allow our democracy to function as major decisions are made.”
The ruling supports the municipalities and nonprofit groups attempting to serve some of society’s most vulnerable people, said Steve Brown, executive director of ACLU Rhode Island.
“This is another win against an unnecessarily cruel and convoluted attempt at undermining the ability of organizations like Crossroads and Youth Pride in Rhode Island to adequately provide their services,” he said.
Trump’s secretary of Housing and Urban Development is a Southern Baptist pastor, Scott Turner, who came to the role from the staff of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas.