Attorney General Jennifer Davenport today joined a coalition of 16 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit challenging unlawful actions by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), including threats to withhold funding from state and local fair housing enforcement agencies because the state civil rights laws protect LGBTQ+ New Jerseyans and to impose other illegal conditions on HUD funding. These actions threaten to upend America’s fair housing enforcement system and undermine states’ ability to ensure equal access to housing for all New Jerseyans.
“Housing is the biggest expense most New Jerseyans face, and that affordability crisis shouldn’t be made even worse by discrimination. It is bad enough that the federal government has largely abandoned efforts to combat housing discrimination, but the Administration should not also inhibit states from protecting our residents,” said Attorney General Davenport. “To withhold funding, and allow such discrimination to go unchecked, is profoundly wrong.”
Sixty years ago, Congress enacted the Fair Housing Act to address pervasive housing discrimination. Congress also created a robust partnership between HUD and state and local agencies, known as the Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP), to enforce this landmark civil rights law in tandem with state fair housing laws. The FHAP has had strong bipartisan support in Congress and stable funding since it was established in 1980.
In their lawsuit being filed today, Attorney General Davenport and the other attorneys general allege that the Trump Administration is seeking to illegally undermine this partnership by attacking states’ ability to participate in the program based on their state laws being more protective than federal law.
Through the FHAP, HUD refers allegations of housing discrimination to state and local partner agencies for investigation and enforcement. These agencies receive HUD funding, which they use to process housing discrimination complaints, train staff, and support community outreach and education.
In September 2025, HUD issued guidance to the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights and partner agencies in other states, threatening to decertify them from the program and cut off funding unless they stop enforcing crucial protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The guidance also bars agencies from pursuing claims targeting housing practices that may appear neutral but, in reality, have a discriminatory disparate impact on certain populations. In New Jersey and many other states, these fair housing protections are enshrined in state law.
In addition to the threat to decertify partner agencies, HUD is attempting to impose vague, ideologically motivated, and unlawful conditions on program funding.
In their complaint, Attorney General Davenport and the attorneys general assert that the Administration’s actions will sow confusion over enforcement and raise the costs of enforcing state and federal fair housing laws in their states in violation of the Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution and the federal Administrative Procedures Act.
The attorneys general note that this unlawful ultimatum comes after HUD gutted its own fair housing enforcement capabilities by slashing its headcount and significantly reducing the number of housing discrimination cases it brings. The agency also fired employee whistleblowers after they publicly sounded the alarm about the Trump Administration’s decimation of fair housing enforcement.
Joining Attorney General Davenport in the lawsuit are the attorneys general of California, Illinois, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia.
