Eviction Fears, Disability Discrimination, and Trump’s War on Fair Housing

On Feb. 27, the Trump administration abruptly canceled funding grants for 78 nonprofit organizations that work to combat housing discrimination nationwide, including that of Arthur’s organization. That funding, she said, comprises all of the organization’s fair housing funds. These Fair Housing Initiatives Program grants, a program that has existed since 1987, have helped fund organizations that provide direct assistance to those who feel they have faced discrimination while attempting to purchase or rent housing, as well as organizations that focus on outreach and awareness campaigns relating to fair housing.

Will Fischer, director of housing policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, explained that more people would lose protections from a whole range of discriminatory actions—race, gender, ethnicity, age, disability—as well as options to seek any enforcement. “What this means also is that owners, people in the real estate industry, will know that there’s less enforcement,” he said, “so it will just kind of embolden bad actors to be more likely to discriminate than they would be today.”

In February, nearly half of all local fair housing enforcement agencies received notices of cancellation, totaling around $30 million in cuts, which were substantial portions of their budgets. About a month later, a temporary restraining order from Judge Richard G. Sterns of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts reinstated those grants in response to a class-action lawsuit from the National Fair Housing Alliance, but the eventual outcome remains uncertain with potentially dire consequences for consumers.

As the massive assault on the federal government by the Trump administration unfolds, the damage to federal agencies—from the Department of State to the Department of Health and Human Services to FEMA—has been almost too much to calculate. Foreign aid, public health efforts, the Internal Revenue Service, national parks, research grants to colleges and universities, and countless other programs have been eviscerated—at least 51,000 federal employees have been laid off or are targeted for layoffs, according to a CNN analysis. A Supreme Court decision from early July cleared the way for the Trump administration to go ahead with mass layoffs across agencies, including HUD. Within this chaotic landscape are also dramatic cuts to housing programs funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD programs impact millions of Americans—there are over 788,000 public housing units and over 2.3 million housing vouchers leased across the country, according to data from agency dashboards.

“We are witnessing an assault on fair housing and fair lending by this administration as the nation is in the throes of a fair and affordable housing crisis,” said Nikitra Bailey, executive vice president at the National Fair Housing Alliance. She warns that the changes “will open the floodgates to predatory conduct in the housing market.”