Court Temporarily Blocks Administration's Attempt to Implement Unlawful Housing Policy
Dec 19, 2025
Washington, D.C. - On December 19, 2025, a federal judge granted motions for preliminary injunction, which will temporarily block the Trump-Vance administration’s attempts to implement unlawful and unreasonable restrictions that seek to shift funding away from proven solutions to homelessness. The order comes in National Alliance to End Homelessness et al. v. HUD, a case brought by local governments and nonprofit organizations, which seeks to prevent the administration’s harmful attempt to stop funding permanent housing projects that are keeping hundreds of thousands of people out of homelessness as cold winter months arrive.
On December 1, 2025, the National Low Income Housing Coalition, alongside a broad coalition of local governments and nonprofit organizations, took legal action to stop the Trump-Vance administration from creating these unlawful restrictions. "HUD’s proposed Continuum of Care Program Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) represents a destructive departure from decades of homelessness policy and will put an estimated 170,000 additional households into homelessness," said NLIHC President and CEO Renee M. Willis in the statement announcing this litigation.
For years and through multiple administrations, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Continuum of Care (CoC) Program has helped provide the necessary resources for local governments and organizations to fund permanent housing projects for veterans, seniors, people with disabilities, and individuals and families with children experiencing homelessness. On November 13, 2025, however, without explanation, HUD rescinded a necessary program notice, replacing it with one that threatens existing services. This move was withdrawn by HUD hours before a hearing in the case brought by local governments and nonprofit organizations. Judge Mary S. McElroy’s order from the bench today, which will be followed by a written order, blocks the implementation of dangerous changes to the CoC program even as the government has threatened to issue another new funding announcement.
"Although more work remains, we sincerely thank our partners across the country, including advocates, frontline providers, researchers, CoC leaders, organizers, and people with lived expertise. Your support has strengthened our collective voice," said Willis in a separate statement. "Together, we will ensure that those with the greatest needs receive the resources they deserve and were promised, so they can remain stably housed."
In addition to NLIHC, the coalition behind the lawsuit includes the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH), Crossroads Rhode Island, Youth Pride, Inc., as well as the County of Santa Clara, Calif., San Francisco, Calif., King County, Wash., Boston, Mass., Cambridge, Mass., Nashville, Tenn., and Tucson, Ariz.
The coalition released the following statement in response to the order:
“This order offers local governments and nonprofit organizations doing the hard and important work of supporting people experiencing homelessness some much-needed relief after the threat of harmful new conditions imposed by the Trump-Vance administration. Today’s order means that more than 170,000 people – families, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities – have respite from the government’s assault. The Trump-Vance administration has suggested it would double-down on its unlawful and unreasonable effort to kick people out of housing and back into homelessness with a new policy shift. We will continue to pursue this case and remain dedicated to protecting proven solutions to homelessness and the hundreds of thousands of people who rely on this housing support.”
After more than a decade of prioritizing evidence-based approaches that reduce homelessness, as the complaint explains, any changes to the Notice of Funding Opportunity threaten to upend the stability of the program required by law, will have devastating impacts for plaintiffs, and cause hundreds of thousands of children, youth, adults, and families to become homeless.
Access NLIHC's analysis of the impacts of significant CoC funding reductions here.
Plaintiff and co-counsel quotes regarding the original filing are available here.
Read the full press release from Democracy Forward here.
Read the full complaint here.
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