Santa Clara County, SF join lawsuit against Trump’s ‘unlawful’ conditions on homelessness funds
Santa Clara County and San Francisco, along with seven other local governments, are asking a federal judge to block the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development from placing “unlawful” conditions on federal funds — stipulations that could put millions of dollars to address homelessness at risk.
The lawsuit, which is being led by King County, Washington, was filed on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. It challenges the Trump administration’s orders to end federal grants that promote diversity, equity and inclusion, “gender ideology” and abortion or “abet so-called ‘sanctuary’ policies that seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation.” On Monday, the coalition filed a temporary restraining order in the matter, which is expected to be heard by a judge on May 7.
“In our Constitution, Congress holds the power of the purse and is the only branch of government authorized to make changes to spending — not the president or the executive branch,” Santa Clara County Counsel Tony LoPresti said in a news release. “The Trump administration is once again asserting executive power that it simply does not have. By conditioning funding, they are continuing to bully local governments into complying with the administration’s political agenda at the expense of effectively helping jurisdictions tackle major local challenges like homelessness.”
The lawsuit focuses on funds from the Continuum of Care program — grants for homelessness services that are administered by HUD and appropriated by Congress. Santa Clara County relies on $34 million per year and San Francisco relies on $50 million annually in Continuum of Care funds that support permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing efforts and transitional housing programs.
The coalition argues in the lawsuit that the conditions placed on the funds “appear to require federal grant recipients to agree to promote the political agenda President Trump campaigned on during his run for office and has continued espousing since, including opposition to all forms of DEI policies and initiatives, participation in aggressive and lawless immigration enforcement, exclusion of transgender people and cutting off access to lawful abortions.”
HUD officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the lawsuit, but in a March social media post, HUD Secretary Scott Turner said that the Continuum of Care program was “meant to provide funds to end homelessness, unfortunately it was used as a tool by the left to push a woke agenda at the expense of people in need.”
In a statement, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said that the “new grant conditions blatantly violate the Constitution and endanger people’s lives. This is part of Trump’s strategy to push his ideology by threatening local programs and budgets.”
The lawsuit over HUD funds is part of a slew of lawsuits filed by Santa Clara County and San Francisco against the Trump administration. Last week, the two Bay Area governments sued Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency over attempts to reduce the size of the federal workforce and limit hiring.
Lawsuits have also been filed over President Donald Trump’s executive orders to end birthright citizenship and withhold federal funds from jurisdictions that have declared themselves as “sanctuaries” for immigrants living in the country illegally.