TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport has joined a coalition of states in filing a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, challenging the Trump administration’s latest changes to federal homelessness funding that the states argue could eliminate permanent housing assistance for thousands of people nationwide.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, contends HUD is once again imposing unlawful conditions on funding through the federal Continuum of Care (CoC) program after a federal court last month blocked similar restrictions for fiscal year 2025. According to the complaint, HUD’s new fiscal year 2026 funding requirements would significantly reduce funding for permanent housing programs, despite Congress historically directing most CoC funding toward those services.
Attorney General Davenport said the changes could force more than 1,300 New Jersey residents out of permanent housing.
“The Trump Administration is trying once again to evict thousands of people, despite a court order holding its previous attempt unlawful,” Davenport said. “The drastic changes that HUD is attempting to impose on this grant program would increase homelessness and send over 1,300 New Jerseyans back to the streets. This is not right.”
For more than 20 years, HUD has supported the Housing First model, which prioritizes placing people experiencing homelessness into permanent housing before addressing other challenges. The lawsuit alleges the Trump administration is attempting to move away from that approach by placing new limits on funding for permanent housing projects.
The coalition argues HUD violated the Administrative Procedure Act by implementing the new funding conditions without required notice-and-comment rulemaking and that the policy changes are arbitrary and capricious.
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the funding changes could affect housing assistance for at least 97,000 people nationwide, including more than 1,300 in New Jersey.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare the new funding conditions unlawful and prevent HUD from enforcing them while the case proceeds.
New Jersey is joined in the lawsuit by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia, along with the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
