A small group of current and former Department of Housing and Urban Development employees launched a website Thursday alleging the Trump administration is preventing them from enforcing federal fair housing laws. The writers remained anonymous, saying they feared being fired.
“This administration has ground fair housing enforcement to a halt,” reads one letter posted at DearAmericaletters.org. “Worse, they’re picking and choosing which protected classes count.” Other letters include: “I pray for justice for every person unfairly denied a safe place to live,” and, from “a tired HUD employee,” “Months later, I still think about the people impacted by the work I was forced to abandon.”
Last fall, two HUD civil rights lawyers were fired after raising concerns with Congress that the agency was unlawfully restricting fair housing enforcement. One of them, Paul Osadebe, who helped launch the site and spoke to NPR in his personal capacity and as an AFGE Local 476 union steward, says the practices continue. “We’re not being allowed to help the people that we’re supposed to be serving,” he said. “If it’s something to do with race, if it’s anything to do with gender, you’re just not allowed to touch that anymore.” NPR has asked HUD for comment.
Under the 1968 Fair Housing Act, HUD must investigate complaints of housing discrimination based on race, national origin, religion, sex, family status or disability, and pursue legal action or settlements when discrimination is found. But HUD Secretary Scott Turner, in a video message for Fair Housing Month, said the law had been distorted to advance “radical ideologies” tied to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). He accused the Biden administration of “weaponiz[ing] the Fair Housing Act” and said the current administration seeks “to restore sanity to enforcement.”
Turner pointed to a proposed rule to end liability for unintentional discrimination (the disparate impact standard), which advocates say is crucial for addressing hidden bias in housing and other areas. He also highlighted HUD reviews of housing efforts in Boston, Minneapolis and Washington state that aim to address historical racial disparities, suggesting those programs may discriminate against white people.
Internal HUD memos last year directed staff to reduce compliance burdens and listed “priorities and practices that must be eliminated,” including cases involving gender identity, environmental justice, and some race-based cases focused on protecting a group rather than an individual. HUD has told states it will not reimburse them for certain discrimination cases tied to sexual orientation, gender identity, criminal record, voucher use or English-language proficiency. Fifteen Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia have sued, calling the shift arbitrary and unconstitutional.
“They’ve turned [civil rights law] on its head,” said Sara Pratt, a former head of HUD’s fair housing office. While states can have stronger laws, she said the federal government is now restricting what states can pursue.
Employees who posted on the site say the policy changes have caused harm. They resent portrayals of civil rights staff as lazy, and describe mass firings, forced resignations and reassignments that have thinned experienced ranks and made it harder to do their jobs. They worry many victims — including homeless people, families with disabled children and survivors of domestic violence — will not get remedies.
One anonymous writer told NPR that broad executive orders on DEI and ideology have left HUD attorneys unable to offer legal interpretation as they normally would, making investigators overly cautious. That, the writer said, can lead to treating sex as no longer inclusive of LGBTQ people. Osadebe added that HUD has directed staff to speak only English with clients after a Trump order designating English the country’s official language. “Imagine that you are a U.S. citizen in Puerto Rico — you speak only Spanish,” he said. “That’s absurd.”
Employees say an atmosphere of repression discourages speaking out for fear of being silenced, attacked or losing their jobs. Osadebe said he hopes the anonymous letters prompt Congressional action and encourage federal workers across agencies to speak up. “We’re all experiencing the same things,” he said.
