Bay Area/ San Francisco

San Francisco Joins King County in Lawsuit Against Trump Administration Over New HUD Funding Conditions

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Published on May 06, 2025
San Francisco Joins King County in Lawsuit Against Trump Administration Over New HUD Funding ConditionsSource: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

San Francisco is on the frontline of what seems to be an ongoing legal battle with the Trump administration over new federal conditions that could jeopardize essential funding for homelessness services. In a move that has brought together a coalition of local governments, led by King County in Washington, San Francisco, and others, are filing a lawsuit to block the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from imposing funding conditions they deem unlawful, Politico reported.

These contentious conditions target federal grants that support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, gender ideology, and abortion, or so-called 'sanctuary' policies. According to the coalition, the president does not have the power to alter spending in this way; it's a privilege reserved for Congress, as stated firmly by Santa Clara County Counsel Tony LoPresti, and echoed in the filings of the coalition, The Mercury News illuminates.

San Francisco depends on HUD for a significant portion of its resources to combat homelessness, including more than $56 million in the form of 35 program grants. David Chiu, San Francisco's City Attorney, has tagged the administration's conditions as a danger to people's lives and a constitutional breach, as disclosed to The SF Standard. The consequences of the HUD's funding cutoff could be dire, potentially resulting in the eviction of nearly 2,000 individuals in the Bay Area city alone.

Amidst growing concerns, San Francisco officials are reassessing the city's DEI programs. The Trump administration has made clear its intent to crack down on such initiatives, with city attorney David Chiu preparing for the possibility of federal funds being stripped away.

With the current coalition lawsuit pending and the next hearing tomorrow, the city and its partners wait to see if the federal judge will ease the immediate threat to federal funding.