Attorney General Ellison wins second lawsuit against Trump Administration HUD to protect federal support for homelessness services
Latest win comes after winning first lawsuit just six weeks ago against HUD’s continued illegal efforts to undermine program that support permanent housing for people facing housing security or experiencing homelessness
Trump Administration put more than 2,000 Minnesotans at risk of losing their housing
August 10, 2026 (SAINT PAUL) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and a multistate coalition have won their latest lawsuit challenging the illegal attempt of the Trump Administration’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to cap funding for permanent housing projects that help families facing housing insecurity or experiencing homelessness. If Attorney General Ellison had not successfully challenged HUD’s policy, more than 2,000 Minnesotans would have been at risk of losing their homes.
This win comes just six weeks after the June 30 win that Attorney General Ellison and the coalition secured in their first lawsuit challenging HUD’s attempt to impose illegal conditions on this funding.
“Twice the Trump Administration tried to impose illegal conditions on funding that helps families experiencing housing insecurity or homelessness secure permanent housing, and twice I have sued them over it and won,” said Attorney General Ellison. “For more than 20 years, administrations of both parties have prioritized evidence-based Housing First strategies, and Trump’s repeated efforts to cut or divert funding from it is both illegal and cruel. My job is to help Minnesotans afford their lives and live with dignity, safety, and respect, and if that means suing Trump to help keep vulnerable folks in permanent housing and restore the rule of law, I’ll do it.”
For more than two decades, HUD has embraced a commitment to permanent housing programs and the Housing First model, which prioritizes rapid placement in permanent housing without requiring people to first meet conditions such as sobriety or a minimum income threshold. The Trump Administration, however, has rejected that commitment and undermined the Continuum of Care (CoC) program.
In November 2025, Attorney General Ellison and a coalition of states sued HUD over the agency’s decision last year to impose illegal conditions on billions of dollars in funding for the CoC program, including an attempt to impose a cap on the amount of CoC funds that can support permanent supportive housing. On June 30, 2026, Attorney General Ellison and the coalition won that lawsuit when a federal court in Rhode Island granted critical parts of the coalition’s motion for summary judgment, ruling that HUD’s conditions restricting CoC funding are unlawful and cannot be implemented.
After that cap was struck down as unlawful, HUD changed its tactics. They issued a new notice of funding opportunity that would have created a $1.3 billion set-aside for new projects prioritizing such things as transitional housing, which would have resulted in a de facto cap on permanent housing. That shift threatened housing for at least 97,000 residents of CoC-funded permanent housing across the country, including more than 2,000 in Minnesota, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
On July 7, 2026, just one week after winning the prior lawsuit against HUD, Attorney General Ellison again joined a coalition of states in suing to block HUD’s latest version of these harmful changes. Today, the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island granted critical parts of the coalition’s motion for summary judgment, ruling that HUD’s set-aside was unlawful and cannot be implemented.
Joining Attorney General Ellison in the lawsuit are New York Attorney General Letitia James, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, and Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, who led the coalition, and the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin, and the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
