Attorney General Ford Urges Court to Reinstate Funding to Fair Housing Organizations

Carson City, NV — On Tuesday, April 29, Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford joined 20 other attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, supporting fair housing organizations in their appeal of a ruling that lifted a temporary restraining order blocking the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from cancelling these organizations’ grant funding.

“Ensuring that fair housing is protected is a core value that governmental organizations should share, and HUD’s cancellation of important grant funding under the Trump administration is both highly destructive to these programs and a failure to fulfill the departments legal responsibilities,” said AG Ford. “I believe fully that this lawsuit will succeed on the merits, and, as such, the temporary restraining order should stay in place in order to protect vulnerable Nevadans from a sudden upending of these programs.”

Congress established the Fair Housing Initiative Program (FHIP) to provide funding to private, nonprofit housing organizations that work to prevent and eliminate discriminatory housing practices and enforce state and federal fair housing laws. According to the brief, in February 2025, HUD suddenly cancelled 78 preexisting FHIP grants to housing organizations engaged in fair-housing work in 33 states. The cancellations were effective immediately and with no prior warning, despite HUD being statutorily required to provide such funding.

A group of 66 nonprofit fair housing groups subsequently sued HUD in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, and on March 26, the Court granted a temporary restraining order reinstating the organizations’ grant funding. A week later, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an interim ruling in a separate grant funding case, and HUD sought to dissolve the District Court’s temporary restraining order based on that interim ruling. On April 14, the District Court granted HUD’s motion.

In their brief, the attorneys general argue that the temporary restraining order should be reinstated because the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their lawsuit, and if allowed to take effect, HUD’s sudden revocation of funding will upend the important work of housing organizations, resulting in more housing discrimination being left undetected and unaddressed, which harms their states and residents.

In joining this brief, AG Ford joins the co-lead attorneys general of Massachusetts, New York and California, as well the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

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