The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is taking steps to end two civil rights investigations that found evidence of racial discrimination in Texas, The move is described by current and former HUD officials as highly unusual, according to a report from ProPublica.
The cases, both initiated under the Biden administration, involved allegations that Texas steered $1 billion in disaster relief away from communities of color in Houston, and that a homeowners association (HOA) in a Dallas suburb adopted policies to push out Black residents.
HUD had determined that both cases warranted litigation, but within weeks of the second Trump administration taking office, the agency rescinded its referrals to the Department of Justice (DOJ) without public explanation.
“I just think that’s a doggone shame,” Doris Brown, a Houston resident and co-founder of a community group that filed the complaint after Hurricane Harvey devastated her neighborhood, told ProPublica. “We might’ve been able to get some more money to help the people that are still suffering.”
HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett defended the decision, stating that the agency was reevaluating Biden-era policies.
“We’re taking a fresh look at cases, regulations, and policies. These cases are no exception,” Lovett said. “HUD will uphold the Fair Housing Act and the Civil Rights Act as the department is strongly and wholeheartedly opposed to housing discrimination.”
Discrimination in disaster relief
After Hurricane Harvey flooded vast areas of Texas in 2017, HUD awarded the state $4.3 billion in mitigation funds to bolster storm defenses.
The Texas General Land Office (GLO) controlled the allocation and, according to HUD’s investigation, deliberately diverted funds away from Houston and other predominantly Black and Latino communities.
HUD’s findings detailed how the state structured competition for the first $1 billion in funding to disproportionately benefit rural, white areas that had suffered less damage. Despite Houston being home to nearly half of all homes damaged by Harvey, the city received no funds.
Harris County, which includes Houston, was later awarded $750 million, but HUD found that amount inadequate to meet the county’s needs. None of the funds were directly allocated to Houston, ProPublica said.
“GLO knowingly developed and operated a competition for the purpose of allocating funds to mitigate storm and flood risk that steered money away from urban Black and Hispanic communities,” HUD’s report stated. “Despite awareness that its course of action would result in disparate harm for Black and Hispanic individuals, GLO still knowingly and disparately denied these communities critical mitigation funding.”
GLO has repeatedly denied the allegations. “Liberal political appointees and advocates spent years spinning false narratives without the facts to build a case,” spokesperson Brittany Eck told ProPublica.
After an extensive investigation, HUD referred the case to the DOJ in January for potential litigation. Less than a month later, HUD reportedly rescinded the referral.
HOA restrictions targeting Black residents
The second case involved Providence Village, a mostly white community near Dallas. A homeowners association enacted rental restrictions that effectively barred Section 8 voucher holders — most of whom were Black — from living there, according to ProPublica.
HUD’s investigation found that in 2022, the Providence HOA prohibited landlords from renting to Section 8 tenants, leading to the displacement of Black families.
Following public backlash, Texas lawmakers banned such HOA restrictions. In response, the Providence HOA reportedly amended its policies in 2024 to impose rental limits that HUD determined would still disproportionately impact Black residents.
The controversy attracted racist rhetoric from local residents on social media, with some calling voucher holders “ghetto poverty crime ridden mentality people” and “lazy entitled leeching TR@SH.” White nationalist groups also protested outside the community, ProPublica reported.
In January, HUD formally accused the HOA, its board president and a property management company of violating the Fair Housing Act. The respondents denied the charges, arguing their policies were meant to protect property values and prevent crime.
“HUD didn’t pursue this case because there’s nothing to pursue,” Mitch Little, the HOA board president’s attorney, told ProPublica. “The claims are baseless and unsubstantiated.”
Civil rights rollbacks raise alarms
The rescinding of these cases aligns with broader changes at HUD under the Trump administration.
In recent months, the agency has cancelled numerous grants to fair housing organizations and circulated staff cut projections of up to 76% in its Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.
“The new administration is systematically dismantling the fair housing enforcement and education system,” Sara Pratt, a former HUD official and attorney representing complainants in both cases, told ProPublica. “The message is: The federal government no longer takes housing discrimination seriously.”
If HUD does not pursue the cases, the complainants could take legal action independently. But many fear the damage has already been done.
“If there is a major flood in Houston, which there almost certainly will be, and people die, and homes get destroyed, the people who made this decision are in large part responsible,” said Ben Hirsch, a member of the coalition that filed the post-Harvey complaint. “People will die because of this.”
