Mass. fair housing center says it can't take new cases after HUD funding cuts

Calls to the Massachusetts Fair Housing Center’s main line have gone to voicemail since March 5.

Clients are directed to dial the extension of the person they’re working with, but those looking to open a new case with the nonprofit center — which provides free legal services to people experiencing housing discrimination — are told by the recording that the office won’t accept new requests for assistance.

It was a difficult message to put up, said Maureen St. Cyr, the executive director of the Holyoke-based center. But the Department of Government Efficiency, an entity formed by President Trump through an executive order, slashed the center’s annual budget by more than half, she said, leaving her little choice.

The office’s $1.3 million contract with the Department of Housing and Urban Development was terminated Feb. 27, effective immediately. The contract had been Congressionally approved yet was cut in the midst of a three-year payment plan.

“To have our funding terminated with no real reason while doing high-quality work,” said St. Cyr, taking a long pause. “I don't have a word for what it is. It’s devastating to the work that we do.”

DOGE’s terminated contracts with 65 other fair housing organizations throughout the country on the same day. The Holyoke center and three organizations based in Idaho, Texas and Ohio filed a lawsuit yesterday to challenge the move in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts.

They’re calling for a temporary restraining order to block the more than $30 million cut by DOGE to the Fair Housing Initiative Program, which issued the grants.

Fair housing centers provide critical funding that helps educate communities, investigate complaints and remove barriers to housing based on discrimination. If someone believes they’ve been denied housing because of discrimination — because they have children or a housing voucher, or need accommodations on the basis of a disability, for example — they can reach out to local centers to help advocate for them.

Marily Rosa spent years scouring the Massachusetts housing market for a better place to raise three young her children. When she applied for new units, she faced denial after denial. It was only when a real estate agent told her a landlord rejected her because she had a Section 8 voucher that her suspicions were confirmed.

When her real estate agent connected her to the center, she felt like someone was finally on her side.

“The guy that worked with me would call me every so often and let me know updates on the case,” she said. “It was effortless for me after submitting the paperwork.”

Rosa decided to move to a different apartment, but the settlement from her case helped to pay for her younger kids’ bunk beds, a new dresser for her oldest and a couch to replace the old, rat-infested one from their previous home.

Without the Fair Housing Center, Rosa said her situation “would be hopeless.”

“I’m sad other people won’t have the same advantage right now, she said. “These places that are helping the less fortunate matter.”

For Cyr, the priority now is helping existing clients, even over having a physical space. Once its lease is up in three months, the center’s nine-person staff will leave the office and work remotely, saving “every last dollar for clients and staff.”

Other fair housing centers across the state are bracing for impact as the Trump administration terminates Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity grants. Of the 162 active grants going to private nonprofits that fight housing discrimination, which is prohibited under the 1968 Fair Housing Act, nearly half are slated for cancellation.

“All these organizations are funded in this way,” said Jamie Langowski, the executive director at Suffolk University’s Housing Discrimination Testing Program. “If they terminate FHEO, they’re really taking away the Fair Housing Act.”

Langowski said her program, which has been funded through HUD since it opened in 2012, hasn’t lost any federal dollars. But two grant applications submitted in November haven’t moved forward, she said, which would have been awarded by now in a typical cycle. That funding is necessary for her organization to continue serving the Boston area, she said.

“We get asked all the time to do training with cities and towns across Mass. for community members, real estate, landlords,” she said. “We’ve already had to start saying no to people.”

Nonprofits work in conjunction with both the state and HUD to provide fair housing services; state and federal offices act as neutral bodies to investigate legal complaints. Massachusetts has its own set of anti-discrimination laws, upheld by the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, whose housing units are supported by HUD funding.

“[Nonprofits] fill a role that MCAD can’t fill — testing, legal advice and representation, working to file complaints,” said executive director Michael Memmolo. “It's a collaborative effort.”

Though the commission hasn’t been notified of any federal cuts, it’s actively planning for the “inevitability that contracts be eliminated,” he said.

There have been warning signs, Memmolo said. The commission received word from HUD that it’s no longer able to file complaints that relate to gender identity under federal law; since those cases no longer receive federal rights protections, they’ll be left to state protections only, he said.

The commission has already begun discussions with Gov. Maura Healey’s office and the Legislature, advocating that the state step in if the federal government cuts funding. About 80% of the commission’s budget comes from the state, but the federal money is crucial, particularly for housing, especially if HUD and local nonprofits can no longer carry their weight, Memmelo said.

In 2024, the commission received 439 complaints alleging discrimination in public housing, making up about 12% of its caseload. Mass. Fair Housing receives about 250 complaints each year and currently serves more than 50 clients.

Beyond outside contracts, the Trump Administration is slashing HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, cutting probationary workers and proposing a 77% staff reduction.

Claire Bergstresser lost her job with Fair Housing Feb. 14 alongside three of her co-workers.

“We were actually trying to head towards more folks covering an entire New England region rather than fewer,” she said. “We’re looking at numerous cases that are going to be reassigned.”

Smaller staff means people who call HUD will have to wait longer for answers, Bergstresser said. And she’s worried about time-sensitive cases — people who need disability accommodations, and domestic violence cases protected under the Violence Against Women Act.

“You’re taking out the ground floor,” Bergstresser said. “At HUD, we have such a stretch as a federal agency that we really help to prop up the giant ecosystem of important players. And so when you take out the ground floor, everything comes down.”

Not every local fair housing nonprofit has been hit with federal funding cuts. SouthCoast Fair Housing, which serves Plymouth and Bristol counties and the state of Rhode Island, still has all of its federal funding, said executive director Kristina da Fonseca. But what’s happened in Holyoke worries her.

“For many years it’s been a network of different actors playing different roles, all kind of working toward the same goal historically: that everyone has safe, affordable and fair housing,” da Fonseca said. “When one of those pieces steps away from that, it’s going to cause disruption through the whole system.”

This story is part of a partnership between WBUR and the Boston University Department of Journalism.