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The White House and key leaders aimed at cost-cutting inside the federal government have reportedly trained their eyes on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and that reporting suggests it is culminating in a series of cuts that could include as much as 50% of the department’s workforce of roughly 9,600 people. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is reportedly not included, the reporting said.
According to Bloomberg Law, the cuts are focused on a few key offices: those that enforce civil rights laws, that compile housing market data and which are focused on post-disaster recovery and rebuilding.
“These potential cuts would really strike at some of HUD’s essential functions,” said Alys Cohen, senior attorney with the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) and who oversees its federal housing advocacy efforts before Congress and the regulatory agencies.
Shaun Donovan, the former HUD secretary during most of Barack Obama’s presidency and now executive director of Enterprise Community Partners, explained that these cuts could hurt a wide variety of core housing functions during a fragile time of high costs and low inventory.
“At a time of record high inflation, housing is the largest component of cost growth in America,” Donovan said in an emailed statement. “Arbitrarily severing funding streams and firing professional, impartial staff will only serve to destabilize our housing system and drive up costs for both renters and owners.”
HousingWire reached out to HUD for comment but did not receive an immediate reply. But a report published by Politico on Friday included a statement from an official granted anonymity to speak to the goals of the DOGE task force inside the department, announced on Thursday by HUD Secretary Scott Turner.
The task force is “carrying out President Trump’s broader efforts to restructure and streamline the federal government to serve the American people at the highest standard,” the official said, but promised HUD would “continue to deliver on its mission to serve rural, tribal and urban communities.”
Civil rights enforcement at HUD
Regarding the potentially impacted functions, enforcement of fair housing laws typically falls under the purview of the department’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.
Under the authority of the Fair Housing Act, the office examines reports of discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation and disability, and its most recent discrimination charge was issued roughly one week prior to the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
The office issued 28 charges of discrimination in calendar year 2024, ranging from alleged retaliation from a property owner against a tenant over discrimination on the basis of sex and national origin, to charges against a Puerto Rico-based luxury condominium company over a lack of accessibility features.
“Housing discrimination was outlawed in 1968, but it’s still a huge problem in this country, which is clear from all the recent housing discrimination cases that have been brought by various federal agencies,” Cohen said. “The civil rights function at HUD is a core part of ensuring that everyone has access to housing, no matter their race, national origin or family status.”
HUD research functions
HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) was established to maintain “current information on housing needs, market conditions, and existing programs, as well as conducting research on priority housing and community development issues,” according to the office’s website.
Data from the office informs a wide variety of HUD program to be based on verifiable and objective information, aims to support the development of building technology and policy development alongside “evidence-based and data-driven policy and program improvements,” and seeks to support the housing and community development fields with knowledge, technical assistance and best practices.
“Housing data are used by researchers to learn more about building communities, but also how to deal with the current housing shortage,” Cohen said of these functions. “Many leaders in the current administration and Congress have made clear that they’re worried about the cost of housing, and its short supply. Having essential data available is crucial for solving this problem.”
Disaster recovery
HUD’s disaster recovery office also provides support for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), connects displaced or otherwise impacted disaster victims with resources including HUD-approved housing counselors, and provides Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds in presidentially-declared major disaster areas (PDMDAs).
“We’re only having more natural disasters as time goes on,” Cohen said. “And HUD’s program provides long-term recovery assistance in disaster areas, and it’s money that local and state officials also rely on. 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.”
These potential cuts could also undermine a stated goal of the Trump administration as outlined in a day-one executive order issued by the president regarding the cost of housing, Cohen added.
“When you have communities struck by disasters, it increases the problem of the housing supply shortage, and so failure to support these communities will on;u increase the acuteness of the housing supply shortage, which is a bipartisan issue.”
Broad implications
Donovan added that broadly speaking, HUD provides a wide variety of essential services to improving the state of housing across the country, and help provide pathways to public-private partnerships and community investment while also giving vulnerable populations opportunities for financing that would otherwise be a challenge to secure.
“HUD guarantees loans for first-time homebuyers, offers financing for veterans looking to find a place to live, and provides vital services to seniors and people with disabilities,” Donovan said. “HUD programs spur investments in libraries, community centers, even critical infrastructure like sewage, roads, and transit, while also helping communities recover in the wake of wildfires, storms, and floods.”
Donovan’s organization, a housing provider and investor, is sensitive to the need for stability in aspects of the housing ecosystem that could be put at risk by such cuts, he said.
“Today, escalating costs are putting owners, developers, builders, and mission-driven housing providers under intense financial strain, with some going bankrupt, effectively cutting our affordable housing supply at a time we can ill-afford to lose a single home,” he said. “Disruptions to vital government financing will only further the crisis that threatens to pull the rug out from under our national housing system.”
“But chaotic cuts can and will have painful consequences for families and the economy,” he added.
