A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to restore grants to the Fair Housing Center for Rights & Research in Cleveland that had been stopped midstream as part of DOGE cuts.
The Fair Housing Center is one of four plaintiffs in national class action lawsuit asserting that HUD couldn’t abruptly cancel fair housing grants at the order of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The judge’s order means that the Fair Housing Center is one of more than 60 fair housing agencies throughout the country that should have a total of $30 million in grants restored. The Trump administration stopped the grants, which were authorized by Congress for fair housing programs, after many of the agencies had already started spending they money on local programs.
Judge Richard G. Stearns of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts issued a 14-day temporary restraining order Wednesday. A TRO is short-term and intended to prevent a person or entity from continuing to engage in a harmful action until a full hearing can be held. The fair housing groups are optimistic funding will be permanently restored, and their legal team hasn’t curbed those expectations, according to Fair Housing Center Executive Director Carrie Pleasants.
“I felt a sense of relief. Now we can move forward and do the work that fulfills our mission.”
Carrie Pleasants, executive director the Fair Housing Center for Rights & Research on receiving an email from the Department of Housing and Urban Development saying that funding had been resumed.
‘Now we can move forward and do the work’
HUD stopped two grants to the center in February, that totaled $225,000. Those grants represent 15% of the nonprofit’s budget. The fair housing agency was halfway through spending the grants, which were paying for things such as an ad campaign to inform Northeast Ohio residents about their fair housing rights and training sessions for landlords on obeying fair housing laws.
Thursday afternoon, Pleasants received an email from HUD stating that each “grant has been restored to its status prior to February 27, 2025, and reinstated.”
Even though the judge had issued his order the day before, she said she didn’t fully feel confident that the funding would be restored until she heard from HUD. (See the memo below.)
“I felt a sense of relief,” Pleasants said. “Now we can move forward and do the work that fulfills our mission.”
The last time the center received an email from HUD it was not good news. Around 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 27, an email popped into her mailbox saying that HUD was terminating the grants midstream at the direction of DOGE because the funding would “no longer effectuate the program goals or agency priorities.” DOGE, championed by billionaire Elon Musk, has the goal of reducing government inefficiency.
On March 13, the lead plaintiffs filed suit. The other parties in the lawsuit are the Massachusetts Fair Housing Center, the Intermountain Fair Housing Council in Boise, Idaho, and the Fair Housing Council of South Texas in San Antonio.
The plaintiffs included DOGE in the lawsuit but withdrew it from being included in the Temporary Restraining Order, the judge’s order says.
Pleasants said the Fair Housing Center continued planning the activities funded by the grant in hopes that the suit would be successful.
“This ruling is a significant victory for fair housing and puts a stop to HUD’s termination of critical grants aimed at combating housing discrimination,” Pleasants said.
“The Fair Housing Center is committed to continuing its efforts to ensure that every
individual has the opportunity to secure fair and equitable housing without fear of discrimination,” she said.
