The Trump administration is quickly remaking housing policy, as the US Department of Housing and Urban Development backs away from long-standing fair-housing protections for transgender people.
In recent months, HUD has focused on the Obama-era Equal Access Rule, which expanded protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity. Fair-housing complaint investigations and federally funded homeless shelters are also under scrutiny.
“This administration wants to pretend trans people do not exist,” said Hannah Adams, a senior staff attorney with the National Housing Law Project. “Whatever they are doing is not in line with HUD’s supposed mission to provide a safety net for families that are struggling in this country.”
HUD said in a statement that it is upholding the landmark Fair Housing Act, which guarantees equal access to housing for all Americans, as well as enforcing Trump’s executive order “restoring biological truth to the federal government.”
Here are some key takeaways about how HUD is addressing the transgender rights debate.
Defining LGBTQ+ rights in the Fair Housing Act
The Fair Housing Act lists sex as one of seven protected classes against housing discrimination. However, it was not until the Obama administration issued the Equal Access Rule in 2012 that those protections were expanded to include sexual orientation, gender identity, and marital status.
In 2016, the rule was expanded to include transgender individuals seeking assistance at federally funded emergency shelters.
Four years later, the Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that a landmark civil rights law protects gay, lesbian, and transgender people from employment discrimination. In 2021, under the Biden administration, housing advocates and HUD interpreted this as a broader affirmation that LGBTQ+ people are also protected under fair housing law.
According to Kim Johnson, public policy manager at the National Low Income Housing Coalition, transgender people experience homelessness at a disproportionately higher rate, despite accounting for less than 1% of the general population.
The spirit of the Fair Housing Act, she said, is to protect everyone who is vulnerable to discrimination, even if the law’s text does not explicitly include gender identity as a protected class.
“We really need to ensure we are upholding what the law means, and the fact is that transgender people are some of the most marginalized people in this country,” Mr. Johnson said.
HUD drops housing discrimination cases
Since President Donald Trump appointed Scott Turner to lead HUD, the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity has directed staff to pause investigations into all gender identity discrimination cases, according to two HUD attorneys who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing their jobs or benefits.
One said letters were then issued, closing the cases due to a lack of jurisdiction.
HUD has not said how many cases have been dropped. A National Fair Housing Alliance report found at least 195 discrimination complaints involving gender identity in 2023, though HUD has not stated how many cases are still outstanding.
With changes to the Equal Access Rule and other guidance still unclear, what happens next often depends on where the case is filed.
In blue states with laws that go beyond federal law, HUD can direct tenants facing LGBTQ+ discrimination to state-run offices that are still taking cases, according to a HUD employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the contentious issue.
According to Sasha Samberg-Champion, former HUD deputy general counsel under Biden and now special counsel for civil rights at the National Fair Housing Alliance, “There is no public policy justification for allowing discrimination in the housing market against transgender people.” None.”
Homeless shelters struggle to comply with Trump’s directives
Community leaders say they are dealing with seemingly contradictory requirements in new HUD contracts with nonprofits that find permanent housing for the homeless and operate shelters.
According to a copy provided to the AP, one section states that nonprofits cannot promote “gender ideology” while another requires compliance with anti-discrimination law.
Because of the uncertainty, a nonprofit in Memphis, Tennessee, is looking to increase capacity for transgender people who require emergency shelter.
My Sistah’s House’s executive director, Kayla Gore, explained that the organization can do so because it does not receive federal funding. Other shelters, however, are removing information about serving the LGBTQ+ community from their websites, fearing that if they do not, they will lose federal funding, she said.
“People are confused,” Gore stated. “They do not know what to do because they want to protect their bottom line.”
Uncertain future for the Equal Access Rule
Turner announced shortly after being sworn in as HUD secretary in February that he would halt enforcement of the Equal Access Rule and quietly file a proposal to revise it. HUD officials have declined to discuss the proposed changes.
In 2020, the first Trump administration attempted unsuccessfully to relieve shelters of any obligation to accommodate transgender people.
With Trump returning for a second term, advocates fear that his administration will feel emboldened to go even further and prohibit shelters from accommodating gender identity entirely.
“Unfortunately, it is making an already vulnerable class of people more vulnerable,” said Seran Gee, an Advocates for Trans Equality attorney.
“Our protections can not be a pingpong ball that changes every four years.”
