Homeless services are at risk during Pierce County’s legal battle with Trump
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Pierce County joined eight governments suing HUD over vague federal grant rules.
- HUD approved $4.9M in homeless aid without disputed conditions amid legal review.
- Pierce County faces risk of losing federal aid as contracts undergo legal scrutiny.
Pierce County was recently notified it would receive nearly $5 million of the federal grant funding it was promised by the previous administration.
Much of the federal funding it was expecting to help address the region’s homelessness crisis is tied up in a legal battle, making the future of services and programs unclear.
On May 2, Pierce County joined a coalition of eight local governments, including King County, New York and San Francisco, in filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and other agencies.
The suit alleged requirements tied to grant funding by Trump’s executive orders regarding gender ideology, undocumented immigrants and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices were vague and directly contradicted federal and state laws.
Days later, a federal judge issued a temporary injunction on the administration’s grant-funding requirements.
“Defendants have put Plaintiffs in the position of having to choose between accepting conditions that they believe are unconstitutional, and risking the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grant funding, including funding that they have already budgeted and are committed to spending,” U.S. District Judge Barbara J. Rothstein wrote in her injunction decision.
On July 3, Pierce County received a grant-agreement letter from HUD confirming it would receive the more than $4.9 million in housing and homeless funding it was awarded during the previous administration.
The services and programs to be funded by the grants include rental assistance, supportive housing, rapid-rehousing and homeless data management support.
The letter, signed by HUD official Margaret Keller, said the funding would be provided free from the requirements made by the Trump administration as a condition of the injunction.
“Please be advised that should the Preliminary Injunction Order in this matter be stayed, dissolved, or reversed, there will be no grant agreement in effect and HUD will reissue a new grant agreement,” the letter stated.
Pierce County Human Service spokesperson Kari Moore told The News Tribune the county’s legal team is “hopeful” the county will be able to provide money to service providers soon.
When asked if the legal challenge had caused a delay to the funding or services, Moore told The News Tribune the yearly funding package from HUD had been signed near the end of June the previous two years. This year, the grant agreement was received near July 7.
Pierce County did not answer questions about specific HUD-funded contracts that were either being delayed or at-risk due to the legal challenge.
“Due to the volume of contracts we process and attorney-client privilege, we are limited in how much detail we can provide about numbers and rationale related to our decisions on federal contracts,” Moore told The News Tribune on July 9.
Moore said the county was reviewing contracts that could be impacted by the Trump administration’s requirements.
“We are examining all federal contracts as they come in and making determinations if we can sign them on a case-by-case basis,” she told The News Tribune on July 8. “If we feel we cannot sign, we may need to seek protection from the courts.”
Moore said some of the requirements were “overly broad” and “vaguely defined” putting the county at “significant legal risk.”
“The vague new terms and conditions have unclear definitions for terms like ‘DEI’ or ‘gender ideology,’” she said. “One example required us to certify that Pierce County and award recipients do not promote DEI in a way that violates any federal anti-discrimination laws, but there is no detailed guidance from the federal government on what they consider a violation. Because of this, we cannot say with full certainty that we meet this condition even though we believe our programs comply fully with the law.”
During a Tacoma Pierce County Coalition to End Homelessness meeting on June 27, Pierce County Human Services director Gary Gant said the county was conducting a risk-assessment analysis to understand how loss of federal funding could impact operations across all its agencies.
Gant said the county receives about $100 million in federal funding annually, about 6% of its entire budget.
“Cancellation of the federal grants and programs combined with changing terms and conditions for federal contracts means that Pierce County is likely to lose most, if not all, of its federal funding,” he told the coalition.
While Gant said the county is doing everything to review the terms of the contracts, he urged service-providing organizations that rely on federal grants to have contingency plans to continue providing services without such funding.
He said the more than $4.9 million recently agreed to by HUD was for the highest-priority homeless and housing projects identified by the county for this fiscal year.
Gant confirmed services and programs could lose funding at random based on their individuals contracts.
“This uncertainty is stressful and cruel, but we also know we will communicate as much information as we can and remain focused on serving those who will be most harmed by these federal actions,” he said.
