City Of Boston Sues Trump Administration To Defend Critical Housing And Homelessness Funding

Mayor Wu joins multicity lawsuit challenging HUD’s unlawful attempt to withhold $48 million in previously-awarded funds to provide housing and services for people experiencing homelessness.

Mayor Michelle Wu today announced that the City of Boston joined a lawsuit with cities and counties from across the United States to challenge the Trump Administration’s unlawful move to cancel $3.6 billion in grants for housing and homelessness prevention unless Boston and other communities agree to the President’s unconstitutional Executive Orders.

The suit challenges the move by the Trump Administration to withhold nearly $48 million in previously-awarded funding for Boston to fight homelessness unless the City agrees to comply with a raft of new Executive Orders and grant conditions, which are unrelated to housing and likely unconstitutional. The Administration’s actions threaten billions in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Continuum of Care (CoC) program, the single largest source of federal funding Boston and other cities use to address homelessness. This lawsuit seeks to defend the City from executive overreach and many unlawful and arbitrary conditions being added to the CoC program.

“The Trump Administration is threatening to hold up nearly $48 million for Boston to tackle homelessness unless our City complies with unconstitutional Executive Orders,” said Mayor Michelle Wu. “We are joining other cities and counties across the country to protect critical funding to prevent homelessness and house families in need. Boston will not back down on making our city a home for everyone.”

The Continuum of Care program supports individuals experiencing homelessness and formerly homeless Boston residents with finding stable housing connected to health care, counseling, and other supportive services. Each year, the City of Boston works with local nonprofit organizations to assist more than 2,000 households experiencing homelessness —individuals, families, young adults, and veterans. These services are part of Boston’s broader “housing first” strategy, which focuses on helping people move into stable housing as quickly as possible with supports to help them stay housed. The actions by the Trump Administration threaten these resources and the housing that the City and its partners are able to provide.

The new requirements from the federal government would force Boston and other cities to make legal promises that conflict with local laws, values, and long-standing efforts to support residents and connect them with stable housing. These include conditions related to immigration enforcement, health care, DEI, and how cities support transgender and gender-diverse individuals. If Boston agreed to these terms and was later found to be out of compliance based on this federal administration's unfounded and unsupported interpretation of the laws, the City could be forced to pay back all the grant money—up to three times the original amount—leaving thousands of residents without housing support and putting the City in an unnecessary position financially.

Each year, the Continuum of Care program funds services in Boston such as permanent supportive housing for people with disabilities, rapid re-housing for those exiting homelessness, and transitional housing for survivors of domestic violence and others in crisis. More than 18 nonprofit organizations receive this funding annually to do their work, including Metro Housing | Boston, Pine Street Inn, HomeStart, and Casa Myrna. These groups also employ more than 125 people with this support.

“Our nonprofit partners work every day to make sure our most vulnerable residents have the housing and the support services that they need to stabilize their lives,” said Sheila Dillon, Chief of Housing. “The Continuum of Care federal funding is too important to be compromised by the federal administration’s unrelated policy agenda.”  

"We cannot allow the federal government to abdicate our collective responsibility to provide housing for our homeless and neediest residents, including veterans and those struggling with mental health issues. Boston will continue to fight for critical funding to care for our residents and will protect their basic rights," said Council President Ruthzee Louijeune.

Boston joins seven other jurisdictions in filing this lawsuit in the federal Western District of Washington, including King County, WA; the City of New York, NY; the City of Columbus, OH; the City and County of San Francisco, CA and Pierce County and Snohomish County, WA.