AG Jennings secures order protecting federal support for homelessness services

Attorney General Kathy Jennings and a multistate coalition have won a case challenging the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) illegal attempt to cap funding for permanent housing projects that help families facing housing insecurity or experiencing homelessness. Had the coalition not successfully challenged HUD's policy changes, more than 600 Delawareans would have lost their homes.

"The efforts of the Trump Administration to break the law and render thousands of people homeless have failed again," said Attorney General Kathy Jennings. "It is unconscionable - but at this point, sadly not surprising - that this Administration would go as low as forcing Americans out onto the street in an effort to punish states that did not support the President in the last election. We will continue to protect funding for permanent housing at every possible opportunity."

For more than two decades, HUD has embraced a commitment to permanent housing programs and the Housing First model, which prioritizes rapid placement in permanent housing without requiring people to first meet conditions such as sobriety or a minimum income threshold. The current federal administration has rejected that commitment and undermined the Continuum of Care (CoC) program.

This was the states' second victory this summer against the Trump Administration's attacks on the CoC program. In June, the states won a separate federal case against HUD regarding the agency's decision last year to impose illegal conditions on billions of dollars in funding for 2025 CoC program grants. Those conditions included an attempt to impose a cap on the amount of CoC funds that can support permanent supportive housing and the states' successful challenge to those conditions protected housing for more than 500 Delawareans.

After that cap was struck down as unlawful, HUD changed its tactics. The agency issued a notice of funding opportunity for its 2026 CoC program grants that would have created a $1.3 billion set-aside for new projects prioritizing, among other things, transitional housing. The set-aside would have amounted to a de facto cap on permanent housing. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, that shift threatened housing for at least 97,000 residents of CoC-funded permanent housing across the country, hundreds of whom reside in Delaware.

AG Jennings joined a coalition of states in suing to block these harmful changes. Last week, a federal judge granted critical parts of the coalition's motion for summary judgment, ruling that HUD's set-aside was unlawful and cannot be implemented.