Tuesday, March 10, 2026HUD Appeals Judicial Decision to Shift Homelessness Paradigm

Washington, DC - The Department of Justice (DOJ) on behalf of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is appealing the Federal District Court of Rhode Island's preliminary injunction. The injunction denies HUD the ability to award homelessness grants under its policies that protect homeless individuals from dangerous encampments, illicit drugs, and sex offenders, and orders the Department to spend billions of dollars on simply warehousing people. This action underscores HUD's commitment to reform the misguided "Housing First" approach that funded the self-serving homeless industrial complex, rewarded activists, and ignored solutions. HUD is challenging the decision to support the status quo that now stands in the way of much needed reforms for homeless Americans.

"President Trump and Secretary Turner vowed a drastic paradigm shift in how America addresses homelessness. The homeless industrial complex promulgated Housing First, which has repeatedly failed vulnerable Americans. It has by every objective measure turned America's streets into a petri dish of disease, drugs, and despair. HUD is doubling down for real solutions to this catastrophe and will continue to pursue every legal avenue to reform the homelessness system within the bounds of the law," said Deputy Secretary Andrew Hughes.

In November 2025, HUD announced monumental reforms to the Continuum of Care (CoC) program, its key homelessness funding program intended to promote self-sufficiency, not government dependency. It is also intended to be a true competition designed to choose among the best available solutions and not an entitled slush fund. HUD's FY25 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) invests $3.9 billion in housing with accompanying services, rather than rewarding grantees for simply warehousing able-bodied, non-elderly homeless individuals. This realignment effectuates President Donald J. Trump's Executive Order, Ending Crime And Disorder On America's Streets.

Through the use of weaponized litigation, twenty-one states, the District of Columbia, and a handful of activist groups and local municipalities sued HUD. This lawfare has blocked HUD's ability to revise the funding conditions and select the best and most effective projects, delaying important funding deadlines.

The appeal puts HUD one step closer to providing dignity to our most vulnerable Americans, protecting billions of taxpayer dollars, and overturning the Court's decision to perpetuate the failing status quo.

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