California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a lawsuit Monday against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Hector Amezcua
hamezcua@sacbee.com
California and more than a dozen other states are accusing the Trump administration of trying to gut enforcement of fair housing laws by imposing “vague, arbitrary, and unlawful conditions” on state and local agencies, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.
The requirements from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, known as HUD, include barring those agencies from using funds to promote “gender ideology,” elective abortions or illegal immigration. They also include preventing the agencies from alleging that a policy or action discriminated against people even if there was no intent behind it.
“HUD, without legal authority, is effectively undermining state laws that offer stronger protections than federal law,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “HUD’s guidance is unlawful and would only roll back the progress we’ve made to keep our families safe from discrimination that limits where they can live.”
Representatives for the federal housing department did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment about the lawsuit. The case was filed in a federal court in San Francisco.
The department has provided funding to state and local governments to enforce housing laws for decades. The California Civil Rights Department is a state agency that is participating in the program.
In September, the housing department threatened to decertify recipients of the money who don’t follow a series of rules, according to the lawsuit.
It calls the effort the “latest attempt by the executive branch to leverage federal programs to achieve unrelated policy goals that thwart Congress’ will and infringe upon state sovereignty.”
Bonta’s office, along with attorneys general from the District of Columbia and 14 states, are asking that a judge prevent the requirements from going into effect and determine that putting them in place would violate federal law.
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Stephen Hobbs is an enterprise reporter for The Sacramento Bee’s Capitol Bureau. He has worked for newspapers in Colorado, Florida and South Carolina.