National Alliance to End Homelessness and Women’s Development Corporation Files Lawsuit Against HUD for Punishing Federal Housing Applicants

By Alayna Calabro, NLIHC Senior Policy Analyst 

The National Alliance to End Homelessness and Women’s Development Corporation filed a lawsuit and a motion for a temporary restraining order against HUD and HUD Secretary Scott Turner on September 11. The lawsuit challenges HUD’s new funding restrictions that unlawfully condition access to federal housing grants in compliance with the Administration’s partisan agenda. Plaintiffs are represented by Democracy Forward, the National Homelessness Law Center, the Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation of Rhode Island. 

The case, National Alliance to End Homelessness v. Turner, et al., asserts that HUD’s new criteria for Continuum of Care (CoC) Builds grants are unconstitutional and unlawful. The lawsuit asks the court to block HUD’s unlawful funding restrictions and restore fair access to federal housing funds. 

“The work to end homelessness is not partisan, and it never should be,” stated Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. “Permanent Supportive Housing is an essential resource for re-housing those with the greatest needs. Withholding it from communities for political reasons is unconscionable, unconstitutional, and unaligned with the goal of serving vulnerable Americans. These actions will harm entire communities at a time when there is more pressure than ever to address chronic and unsheltered homelessness, and it signals the potential for further political interference in the work to get people off the streets. It cannot be allowed to continue.” 

Learn more here. 

Read the complaint here.