By Renee Williams, NLIHC Senior Advisor for Public Policy
On August 26, 2026, a federal district court vacated HUD’s fiscal year (FY) 2025 Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs) for the Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) in a lawsuit brought by Massachusetts Fair Housing Center and the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA).
The court concluded that the plaintiffs would face “irreparable harm should HUD’s FY25 funding structure take effect.” In vacating the award, the court ordered HUD to adopt its FY24 funding structure to allocate FY25 funds.
The lawsuit challenged sweeping changes to the FHIP awards process, with plaintiffs arguing that HUD’s “restructuring of FHIP [would] exclude nearly all existing fair housing organizations from FHIP awards and [would] significantly undermine the chances of those still eligible to apply.” The lawsuit’s complaint added that HUD’s restructuring would “inevitably decrease fair housing enforcement and education work in direct contravention” of the “Fair Housing Act.”
According to a NFHA press release announcing its victory, HUD’s plan “would have caused some fair housing organizations to go out of business and others to lay off staff, significantly reducing their services to people experiencing discrimination and housing insecurity.”
In its opinion, the court noted that in order to enact “sweeping changes” to FHIP, HUD must comply with the “Administrative Procedure Act” and its “mandates on agency decision-making.” The court, however, found that HUD’s explanation regarding the changes “does not add up,” observing that the “changes cut out more fair housing organizations than they include, limit fair housing organization grants to only five organizations over the next year, and limit funds to organizations with an annual budget of at least five million dollars.”
Accordingly, the court concluded that the plaintiffs were likely to prevail and granted the temporary restraining order vacating the FY25 NOFOs.
Read NFHA’s press release.
Read the Memorandum of Decision (opinion).