Trump Hits HUD Hard
A new report reveals that Donald Trump intends to continue his mass firings and will be hitting Housing and Urban Development next and there is something you can do to stop it.
Last week it was the Office of Management and Budget, this week it’s the Office of Housing and Urban Development. The Trump administration is expected to drastically slash the workforce at The Office of Community Planning and Development, which is the arm of the Department of Housing and Urban Development that is responsible for rebuilding houses in the US after hurricanes and other natural disasters.
According to a document recently obtained by The New York Times, the Trump administration intends to cut the staff in The Office of Community Planning by 84 percent, which would take the number of employees in that office down from 936 when Trump took office in January 2025, to only 150 workers.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, this egregious funding cut will mean that “homeless shelters will be forced to close their doors, communities will stop construction on new projects to build housing and community centers, households receiving rental assistance will face immediate rent increases and evictions, and communities, families, and small businesses impacted by disasters will be unable to rebuild.”
While these issues are certainly concerning to many Americans who are struggling to keep a home, it is also important to note that The Office of Community Planning is substantially responsible for rebuilding communities after the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) — which helps state and local governments pay to repair or rebuild damaged roads, bridges, schools, water treatment plants and other public infrastructure — is deployed and those funds are significantly tapped out.
Congress uses this agency specifically to fund additional help that does not fit within FEMA’s specific programs that fund recovery. This critical funding is made through a program at HUD called the Community Development Block Grant— Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR). Congress uses this specific disaster fund and the nearly 1,000 employees in this office to oversee and distribute enormous sums of funding that are often much larger than FEMA can provide.
These disaster funds are the only long-term federal funding available in the United States for disaster recovery, where the funding is granted in the most flexible ways so that it can be used for projects that best meet the needs of the specific, affected community. The following are examples of previous CDBG-DR funding, that has been handled by these employees at HUD, that have been essential for American recovery efforts in various locations:
2002: $2.783 billion to help New York City recover after 9/11
2006: $16.7 billion to help victims of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma
2008: $6.1 billion to help recover from Hurricanes Ike, Gustav, and Dolly
2021: $5 billion to help recover from disasters in 2020 and 2021
2023: $12 billion to help states and territories recover from major disasters
Alys Cohen, a senior attorney with the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), which oversees its federal housing advocacy efforts with Congress and regulatory agencies, has previously explained what some of the potential impacts could be if the office loses much of its manpower, funding or both. “HUD’s program provides long-term recovery assistance in disaster areas, and it’s money that local and state officials also rely on,” Cohen explained. “Disasters don’t have political preferences, and they strike everywhere, including in a lot of Southern states — without this funding, communities will be much less likely to recover.”
On February 16, top Senate Democrats sent a letter to HUD former NFL football player Secretary Scott Turner to express the inevitable problems that HUD will encounter now in delivering services to the American public with such a whittled-down staff.
“Without sufficient staff to run these programs, community and economic development projects, disaster recovery efforts, and housing development across the country will be delayed and could come to a grinding halt,” warned the Senators who expressed concern after HUD’s staffing levels were decreased from 2012-2019 by over 20 percent.
Democrats warn that these kinds of drastic cuts will cause issues with assisting in disaster relief, which allows for more homes to be built faster, but this approach will also mean that there will not be enough staff to meet HUD’s legal obligations under the Fair Housing Act. Legislators have also sent a demand for answers to critical legal questions that have now arisen, with a deadline to respond by February 21.
The United States has not built enough houses to keep up with population growth. The country has been experiencing a housing crisis since the 2007 Great Recession, that has caused an extreme shortage of housing, high home prices, and ever increasing rents. While this crisis primarily affects low-income families, who are struggling to afford housing, Democratic Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris developed a substantial housing platform that would have helped build 3 million homes and incentivize local governments and builders to join in construction.
Firing such a substantial number of employees within HUD and the Office of Community Planning will mean that the housing crisis will continue to increase and begin to affect all Americans, setting the country back decades. For someone like Donald Trump, who purports to be a bastion of State’s Rights and letting local communities decide what is right for themselves, this stark deviation in refusing to support local government through disaster relief is especially shocking.
There is something that can be done to stop mass firings at HUD while this issue heads to the Courts to decide if there is a Separation of Powers Issue. In late January, the Trump Administration directed all federal agencies, including HUD, to withhold all federal assistance investments — including essential HUD funding. After enormous pressure from advocates and congressional champions, the Trump administration rescinded its directive after 48 hours, so there is still hope that we can make a difference now through public pressure and opinion.
It is imperative that the American electorate tell members of Congress why HUD resources are critical to low-income families and communities, as well as to disaster relief projects, and urge Members of Congress to protect HUD programs and staff. You can register now for the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s NLIHC’s National HoUSed Campaign Call on Tuesday, February 25, at 4 pm ET, to learn more about how advocates can stop these harmful cuts to vital services.
I would also urge you to contact both of your Senators and your US Representative by phone, to demand that all employees at The Office of Community Planning be kept in place and their jobs secured. You will want to call their offices until you get an actual person on the phone so that your complaint will have to be logged and addressed. The only way to stop these firings is to stand up and demand that Congress protect our federal services that our income taxes fund and support.
While these issues will continue to be litigated in the courts over time, we need to let our elected officials know that we expect them to pick up the slack created by the Trump administration by blocking each and every mass firing that has taken place. It may feel overwhelming at times, but this is one action you can take to help our country today.
Amee Vanderpool writes the SHERO Newsletter, is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines, and an analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.
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Trump is creating a depression scenario. A return to hopelessness and despair. There will be a rise in crime as desperation increases, sick and dying children from malnutrition and disease and people trying to survive in tents. A despicable and cruel person. We must come out in large numbers like filling the entire Mall to sound our rage. We need brave activists and politicians to prime people to resist.