The Trump administration's possible termination of tens of millions of dollars in funding for fair housing organizations could make building wealth through homeownership more difficult.
That's the warning shared
"It's pretty commonly known that the bedrock of the American Dream and financial success is homeownership," Tudor said in an interview. "Having enforcement around equal housing is extremely important."
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Advocates seek relief in court
Through
For the advocates, the HUD grant cancellations represent an existential threat to civil rights programs under the Fair Housing Act that target discrimination against women, people with disabilities and Black, Hispanic and other minority tenants or homebuyers that exacerbates
"The impact of this sudden loss of funding to the class members has been immediate and severe for the organizations, their communities, and the principle of fair housing that has been a guiding light for the nation's policies since 1968," the Alliance's March 13 filing stated. "Housing discrimination continues while DOGE and HUD pull the plug on a primary statutory means of redressing it."
That concern resonated especially strongly for Tudor, who told the story two years ago in a
Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) sent in a white couple as "testers," and the bank approved that couple's loan. After the organization contacted the bank, Tudor's parents qualified for the mortgage — and the house enabled the family to build generational wealth.
"This home has been a pillar in my life and in the lives of my immediate and extended family," Tudor wrote. "It has been one of the tools that we used to provide financial stability for so many, and it almost never was. We talk about the racial wealth gap like it just happened, but it was very intentional. The banks, insurance companies, regulators, legislators and appraisers all played a huge role in its creation and perpetuity. The local, state, and federal governments meticulously orchestrated this racial wealth gap, and the recent stories of stolen home equity through race-biased appraisals and lending practices signal that we will not be closing this gap anytime soon."
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HUD pushes back
Representatives for HUD didn't respond to inquiries about the lawsuit and funding for fair housing organizations like those of HOME. In
"I know that you're thinking, 'Are HUD-funded programs going to stop?'" he said. "The short answer is, 'no,' but things are definitely going to look a little bit different. Here's what our actions will and will not do: We will not slow down the department's mission-critical functions."
In the case filed by the equal housing organizations in Boston federal court, lawyers for the agency argued that the fair housing programs "confer significant discretion in determining how best to allocate appropriate funds across applicants."
"The statute does not constrain the secretary's discretion to determine how best to allocate the funding for each program among many different potential grant recipients," HUD's filing stated. "The Department's decisions in this context are discretionary decisions regarding how to allocate funds, not subject to arbitrary-and-capricious review under the APA."
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Court cases in limbo
The March 21 filing included a declaration by the career HUD official who sent the organizations the letter informing them of the termination of their funding. The DOGE team at HUD had cited their programs as incompatible with a half dozen executive orders, such as those "ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferences" and "ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity."
"HUD's internal DOGE task force specifically identified that those particular 78 awards were incompatible with one or more of the above executive orders because those awards include language that specifically imposes DEI, DEIA, and/or 'equity' actions, initiatives, plans, programs, grants, contracts, performance requirements, or preferences; and further authorizes the use of federal funds for training, enforcement, and other related activities in a manner for activities beyond the scope of the statutorily enumerated protections of the Fair Housing Act and other civil rights laws," the HUD career senior executive, Matthew Ammon, wrote.
"The task force further identified that the use of federal funds for purposes beyond the specific scope of these statutes dilutes and diminishes the availability of federal funds to carry out the specific, statutorily-authorized functions of the Department," he continued. "And the task force identified that the Department is best able to meet its statutory duties under the Fair Housing Act and other civil rights laws by the termination of these awards and the refocus of efforts toward effectuating the plain language of these statutes."
Those terminations represent "only a subset of the total number of open FHIP awards, as HUD's award-by-award review determined that not all open FHIP awards are inconsistent with executive orders and no longer effectuating program goals or agency priorities," Ammon added.
District Judge Richard Stearns found in favor of the plaintiffs, though, imposing a temporary restraining order on HUD that will be in place until at least May 16. During that span, HUD must "immediately restore plaintiffs to the pre-existing status quo" by reinstating the fair housing grants. However, Stearns based that order on an earlier ruling by the First Circuit Court of Appeals blocking cuts to the Department of Education — and the Supreme Court
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Personal and political upshots
The legal wrangling around DOGE's cuts across the government could go on for months, if not years.
In the meantime, any programs aimed at "correcting for race and having race-conscious provisions" as a means of narrowing the racial wealth gap face a threat that begs the question of "who can then take up the mantle" and what will be the effect to homeownership, according to Michael Neal, a
"Unless you're buying all-cash, you have to make some sort of decision, you have to come to some conclusion about what your life is going to look like over the next five to seven years," he said. "This type of action totally contributes to a broader uncertainty and instability, specifically in a sector that relies on those two characteristics in order for people to be successful in homeownership."
In Cincinnati, Tudor's parents were successful in renovating the home into four separate apartment units that hosted family members and tenants and served as the location of an infant daycare business. He and his two older brothers attended college thanks to home equity lines of credit from the house. Through a will and trust and other estate planning, the family plans to maintain its ownership of the home into the future.
The centrality of the home — and the HOME organization's role in Tudor's parents buying it four decades ago — prompted Tudor to raise the alarm on social media about the possible cuts, he said.
"This is our time to lean in," Tudor said. "It's very easy to take organizations like this for granted, and now is the time for us to really show support for organizations that over the last 50 years have been showing support to us and lifting up our most vulnerable citizens."
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Wealth ramifications
At about $425,000, the grant that could be terminated had supplied funding for discrimination investigations in rental properties and mortgage lending and individual counseling sessions for roughly 350 local tenants who reported complaints to HOME, Executive Director Elisabeth Risch
"We just did this big report to show that Black borrowers are
And that's why HOME supporters like Tudor tie the DOGE cuts of fair housing grants directly to the racial wealth gap and the housing segregation, redlining and discrimination that have played such a large role in generating that racial disparity.
"The first step is acknowledging that the wealth disparity was created intentionally — that's hard for some folks," he said. "We are not in a place of equality today, let alone equity, for the past transgressions and the past harms done by local, state and federal policy."
