Unlawful defunding threat would have forced housing authorities to give up essential funding or submit to illegal Trump demands
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (October 21, 2025) — San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu issued the following statement today after a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking the Trump Administration from enforcing illegal conditions on U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) public housing grants. HUD Secretary Scott Turner sought to carry out President Donald Trump’s executive orders by forcing local housing authorities to either forgo critical federal housing funds or adopt the Administration’s anti-equity, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ+, and anti-abortion policy preferences.
The TRO arises from a lawsuit filed October 15 by the San Francisco Housing Authority (SFHA) and other U.S. housing authorities challenging the unlawful HUD grant conditions. The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office is representing SFHA in the case.
“Congress created these programs to provide affordable housing, not to advance a political ideology,” said City Attorney Chiu. “The Trump Administration tried to force housing authorities to choose between their values and their funding. That’s not how these grants work. We are grateful the court stepped in to stop this unlawful overreach.”
Background
Congress created HUD in 1965 to promote the development of U.S. communities by administering programs that provide affordable housing and expand economic opportunities for low- and moderate-income people. HUD does this through two types of grants—competitive grants that local agencies and organizations apply for, and formula grants that distribute funds based on a formula set by Congress.
Across the country, housing authorities depend on HUD grants to build and manage affordable housing, address homelessness, and create economic opportunities in low-income communities. These funds support programs like rental and downpayment assistance, capital improvement projects, and job training. They also help provide essential services such as food distribution, in-home help for seniors and people with disabilities, support for children affected by abuse or neglect, and domestic violence prevention for low-income households.
Since taking office, President Trump has issued several executive orders directing federal agencies to add unlawful conditions to federal funding programs. These conditions have little or no link to the purposes of the grant programs that Congress established, and the conditions require grant recipients, including SFHA, to promote the President’s political agenda. This includes banning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; requiring local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws; verifying immigration status; and prohibiting the promotion of “gender ideology” or “elective abortion.”
HUD Secretary Turner implemented the executive orders by adding new, unauthorized conditions to the large portfolio of HUD grants and issuing agency-wide guidance on how the conditions would be enforced. HUD imposed these requirements even though Congress created the grant programs and never approved conditions related to banning DEI, enforcing immigration laws, verifying immigration status, or prohibiting promotion of “gender ideology” or “elective abortion.”
SFHA relies on several formula-based grants from HUD to operate its Public Housing Program, which provides housing for 646 individuals. In 2025, SFHA received $6.9 million from two HUD grants, and anticipates receiving $2.9 million in 2026. The loss of this funding could jeopardize the housing status of hundreds of people in San Francisco.
HUD’s actions force housing authorities nationwide to forgo critical funding or carry out President Trump’s political agenda through unlawful and discriminatory grant conditions. The housing authorities faced an October 21, 2025, deadline to agree to the illegal conditions.
On October 15, SFHA along with other housing authorities across the country filed a lawsuit challenging the illegal grant conditions. District Judge Jon S. Tigar for the Northern District of California issued a TRO on October 18, preventing the Trump Administration from enforcing the illegal conditions in HUD grants.
The lawsuit alleges the new HUD grant conditions violate the Separation of Powers doctrine, Spending Clause of the Constitution, Fifth Amendment’s void-for-vagueness doctrine, and the Administrative Procedure Act. In addition to the TRO already issued, Plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent the new HUD conditions from being enforced, a declaration from the Court stating that conditions are unconstitutional and invalid, and an order prohibiting the Trump Administration from retaliating against the housing authorities for participating in this lawsuit.
The case is Housing Authority of the County of San Diego, et al., v. Scott Turner, et al., U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Case No. 4:25-cv-08859. The lawsuit is available here, and the Court’s Temporary Restraining Order can be found here.
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