AG Brown joins coalition challenging HUD attack on states’ fair housing laws

Attorney General Nick Brown and a coalition of 15 other attorneys general filed a lawsuit challenging unlawful actions by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), including threats to withhold funding from state and local fair housing enforcement agencies for abiding by state laws.

These actions threaten to weaken fair housing enforcement across the country and undermine states' ability to ensure equal access to housing. If unchallenged, discrimination in housing is almost certain to increase.

"Washington is a state that stands up for the rights of its residents, including protecting them from discrimination in housing," Brown said. "This is a blatantly unlawful attempt by HUD to force our state to walk away from making sure people have a fair shake at securing a place to live."

Sixty years ago, Congress enacted the Fair Housing Act to address pervasive housing discrimination. Congress also created a robust partnership between HUD and state and local agencies, known as the Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP), to enforce this landmark civil rights law in tandem with state fair housing laws. The FHAP has had strong bipartisan support in Congress and stable funding since it was established in 1980.

In their lawsuit, Brown and the other attorneys general allege HUD is seeking to illegally undermine this partnership by attacking states' ability to combat housing discrimination under state laws by their residents' democratically elected representatives.

Through the FHAP, HUD refers allegations of housing discrimination to state and local partner agencies for investigation and enforcement. These agencies use HUD funding for a variety of services, including to process and investigate housing discrimination complaints, enforce anti-discrimination laws, train staff, and support community outreach and education. In Washington, the Human Rights Commission (HRC) is the agency responsible for investigating and enforcing housing discrimination complaints, which have totaled more than 170 annually in recent years, with about half of those complaints referred to the HRC from HUD.

In September 2025, HUD issued guidance to HRC and partner agencies in other states, threatening to decertify them from the program and cut off funding unless they stop enforcing crucial protections against housing discrimination based on sexual orientation, veteran or military status, gender identity, language, criminal records and source of income. The guidance also bars agencies from pursuing claims targeting housing practices that may appear neutral but, in reality, are discriminatory and have a disparate impact on certain populations. In Washington and many other states, these fair housing protections are enshrined in state law.

In addition to the threat to decertify partner agencies, HUD is attempting to impose vague, ideologically motivated, and unlawful conditions on program funding. In Washington, at least approximately $180,000 per year in federal funding is in jeopardy.

The coalition asserts that the administration's actions will raise the costs of enforcing state and federal fair housing laws in their states. They also argue that HUD's vague conditions will sow confusion over enforcement.

The attorneys general note that this unlawful ultimatum comes after HUD gutted its own fair housing enforcement capabilities by slashing its headcount and significantly reducing the number of housing discrimination cases it charges. The agency also fired employee whistleblowers after they publicly sounded the alarm about its decimation of fair housing enforcement.

The coalition's lawsuit alleges that HUD's guidance violates the Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution and the federal Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal agencies implement rule changes.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul are leading the coalition. Joining Bonta, Raoul, and Brown in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaiʻi, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

A copy of the complaint is available here.

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