On June 25, 2025, the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) and the Tennessee Fair Housing Council (TFHC) filed a class action lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, challenges HUD’s failure to administer congressionally-appropriated funds for local organizations engaging in fair housing activities.
The Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP), created by Congress in 1992, funds the local organizations that investigate housing discrimination and educate real estate professionals and consumers about civil rights laws. Local fair housing centers have been funded for decades by both parties. In the lawsuit, the fair housing groups allege that HUD has halted the release of new grant awards and frozen the second and third years of existing multi-year grants. The groups claim that the loss of tens of millions of dollars in grant funding is causing shutdowns, layoffs, and terminations of investigations for fair housing organizations across the country.
The administration's proposed FY 2026 budget zeroes out the FHIP program.
