(The Center Square) – King County is joining a coalition of local governments in a lawsuit against the Trump administration over a recent funding notice from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The lawsuit – filed in the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island on Monday – claims HUD’s funding notice was a late-stage decision, as it was done weeks before the fiscal year 2025 awards would have gone out, rescinding the two-year notice of funding.
According to the lawsuit, HUD’s decision will “severely delay essential funding for housing” due to any new awards being delayed until May at the earliest. Homeless programs across the country have grants expiring as soon as January, meaning they could be left without funding for months.
The King County Regional Homelessness Authority said the change is expected to create a $40 million shortfall for the agency, which in turn could threaten housing and related services for approximately 4,500 households. The funding notice caps permanent housing spending at 30%, a major shift from the current 87% of local Continuum of Care funds supporting permanent housing. The Seattle-King CoC was awarded $67 million last fiscal year, with King County being the direct recipient of $38.85 million of those funds.
“These unlawful actions by the administration will only worsen the crisis, causing more homelessness and devastating communities across our region,” King County Executive Girmay Zahilay said in a statement. “This is why I am joining other jurisdictions from around the country to protect these federal investments.
Zahilay added support for the Housing First strategy to ending homelessness, noting that 95% of King County households in permanent supportive housing remained permanently housed last year.
HUD says the change aligns with a previous executive order issued by President Donald Trump directing federal agencies to move funding away from a Housing First approach to a treatment first approach. In a press release, the agency argued the Housing First approach “encourages dependence on endless government handouts while neglecting to address the root causes of homelessness, including illicit drugs and mental illness.”
Last month, Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown filed his 45th lawsuit so far against the Trump administration for the new requirements imposed by HUD. Brown said the change will throw many people into crisis, forcing them to reenter the shelter system, hospitals, jails and behavioral crisis facilities.
Along with King County, plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Santa Clara County in California; the city and county of San Francisco; Boston; Nashville; and Tucson.
