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Santa Clara County and a coalition of seven jurisdictions on Friday lobbed another legal challenge at the Trump Administration, arguing that the Department of Housing and Urban Development acted illegally when it placed new conditions on grants that fund services to reduce homelessness.
The conditions, which stem from various White House executive orders, could threaten tens of millions of dollars in annual funding that the county receives from the federal government through HUD’s Continuum of Care program. The program, which was established through the 1987 Homeless Assistance Act, focuses on supportive housing, rehousing and transitional housing programs.
Santa Clara County receives about $34 million each year in Continuum of Care grants, which help provide rental assistance and supportive services to families, young adults, individuals with disabilities and survivors of domestic violence, according to the county. San Francisco gets about $50 million funds through the program annually.
But recent revisions in grant conditions may upend that. The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court in Seattle, cites several executive orders that target jurisdictions that promote “diversity, equity and inclusion.” One such order, which President Donald Trump signed in January, revoked various federal programs relating to diversity and affirmative action and directed federal agencies to terminate all mandates relating to diversity and equity. Known as the “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” the Jan. 21 order also requires federal agencies to ensure that contractors certify that they do not operate programs that promote DEI.
The executive order asserts that DEI policies “undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system.”
Another executive order, dubbed “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders,” directed federal agencies to ensure that federal funds to state and cities do not “by design or effect, facilitate the subsidization or promotion of illegal immigration, or abet so-called ‘sanctuary’ policies that seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation.”
The coalition of plaintiffs includes the three counties in the Seattle metropolis area – Martin Luther King, Pierce and Snohomish – as well as San Francisco, Boston, Columbus and New York City. In their complaint, they are asking the federal court to declare these conditions “unlawful, void, and unenforceable” and enjoin their imposition and enforcement.
“Allowing the unlawful grant conditions to stand would negatively impact Plaintiffs’ committed budgets, force reductions in their workforce, and undermine their ability to determine for themselves how to meet their communities’ unique needs,” the complaint states.
The counties assert that in March and April, HUD responded to the recent executive orders by presenting them with Continuum of Care grant agreements for funding that has already been awarded. These new agreements included language specifying that the grants are governed by “all current Executive Orders” and prohibiting grants from being used in a way that “facilitates the subsidization or promotion of illegal
immigration or abets policies that seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation.”
The lawsuit comes just days after Santa Clara County filed another lawsuit against the Trump Administration, challenging its efforts to significantly reduce the federal workforce. Santa Clara and San Francisco counties also both participated in a February lawsuit that pushed back against an executive order that aims to punish “sanctuary” jurisdictions, which opt not cooperate with the federal government on immigration enforcement.
In all three cases, the county and its partners are arguing that the White House is illegally defunding programs and positions that had been created by the legislative branch. The new lawsuit argues that grant conditions seek to “usurp Congress’s prerogative to legislate and its power of the purse, as well as the judiciary’s power to say what the law means.” the legislation authorizing the Continuum of Care program does not authorize HUD to attach these conditions to the federal fund, the complaint states..
“Since taking office, President Trump has issued numerous executive orders purporting to direct the heads of executive agencies to impose conditions on federal funding that bear little or no connection to the purposes of the grant programs Congress established, lack statutory authorization, and conflict with the law as interpreted by the courts,” the lawsuit states. “Instead, the conditions 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.
San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said in a statement that the new grant conditions “blatantly violate the Constitution and endanger people’s lives.” Tony LoPresti, Santa Clara County counsel, similarly noted that Congress is the only branch of government that is authorized to make changes to spending.
The Trump administration, he said, “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,” LoPresti said in a statement.
Santa Clara County Executive James R. Williams called the federal administration’s threats to withhold funding to local governments for homelessness programs “callous and cruel.”
“The County relies on federal grant funding to keep people securely and safely housed in our community every day,” Williams said. “The actions of the federal administration directly imperil the critical work the County has been doing to prevent homelessness and get individuals and families into housing more quickly and efficiently.”
