Hundreds of staffers at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development received layoff notices late Friday afternoon, as the Trump administration made good on threats to fire workers during the federal government shutdown.
The largest cuts were concentrated in the agency’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, the division that investigates claims of discrimination and abuse.
Nearly 100 equal opportunity specialists who investigate fair housing complaints received reduction-in-force (RIF) notices at field offices across the country, according to a document seen by Bloomberg. Layoff notices went out to field offices in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Denver, Fort Worth, Miami, New Orleans, Philadelphia and more.
According to two staffers at HUD, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution, the entire fair housing staff at two of HUD’s 10 regional offices got notices: Denver (which oversees Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana) and San Francisco (California, Nevada and Arizona). Five other regional offices also saw deep cuts to fair housing staff.
Notices received by employees indicate that their last day will be Dec. 9.
“HUD is implementing a reduction in force to align our programs with the administration’s priorities and the appropriations available to the department,” HUD said in a statement. The agency did not immediately respond to questions about cuts to specific regional offices.
The Trump administration’s approach to fair housing enforcement has been a subject of fierce debate under
A whistleblower disclosure filed in August by four HUD civil rights attorneys raised alarms that HUD staff cuts and policy shifts were decimating the agency’s ability to investigate discrimination complaints and enforce fair housing laws. The Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity has lost nearly 70% percent of its attorneys since January, according to the letter.
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In September, HUD issued a memo outlining a shift in its approach to fair housing: The agency will not prioritize claims over policies that are not explicitly discriminatory but nevertheless result in harm against people in protected categories. For example, cases that involve lenders restricting or denying mortgages to whole neighborhoods — a practice known as
Job cuts announced on Friday targeted more than just just fair housing. Layoffs also hit the division of the agency that distributes and administers billions of dollars in block grants for affordable housing and community development. More than 100 staffers that oversee public housing and Indian housing got notices, including more than 25 employees whose job is to inspect rental housing, as well as 50 staffers in the office that includes the Federal Housing Administration — an agency that generates billions of dollars for the US government by underwriting mortgage loans for homes.
Several affected staffers say that they hope that the notices are merely negotiating tactics. RIF notices also went out in March for field policy and management offices, closing many of them, but HUD ultimately did not act on them.
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