More turmoil at HUD as key departments face huge cuts 

As the second Trump presidency passes the one-month mark, big changes are already underway in D.C. and beyond. While many agencies and programs are being targeted by the Office of Management and Budget and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development continues to be hit hard.

Until the dust settles, it will be difficult to predict the long-term impacts on HUD and other agencies, but these are a few of the latest developments.

More big cuts at HUD: Disaster recovery, fair housing targeted

Musk and HUD Secretary Scott Turner have looked to shake up the federal government's housing department, promising sweeping staff reductions and eliminating the option to work remotely. DOGE claimed in a post on X last Friday that the task force had recovered $1.9 billion that was "misplaced" under the Biden Administration, with Turner adding on Feb. 19 that the department is "just getting started" on "trimming the fat." 

This week, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration is also planning to eliminate most of the staff at HUD's Office of Community Planning and Development, which supports major disaster-recovery efforts. According to The Times, 84% of the CPD's employees will be cut. 

Other departments on the chopping block, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press, include the Office of Public and Indian Housing, which distributes rental assistance to more than 3.5 million households; the Office of Housing, which counsels first-time homebuyers and helps borrowers navigate the FHA lending process; and the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, which enforces fair housing laws. Proposed staff reductions for those departments range from 44% to 77%.

And on Feb. 20, HUD announced that Turner canceled $4 million in DEI-related contracts. The National Fair Housing Alliance, along with the National Urban League and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, have filed suit against the president's administration for its anti-DEI stance, arguing that it violates the First and Fifth amendments.

Some senior leaders of the Democratic opposition say that the sweeping cuts to HUD staff and programs could put veterans, seniors and the homeless at risk, and "would further exacerbate the housing crisis."

New faces at the CFPB, cuts at the FHA

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has also been under fire since the organization was ordered to stop working earlier this month. As Musk gloated about the end of agency operations, opposition leaders say consumers could be vulnerable to predatory tactics from big banks and Musk himself — who Sen. Elizabeth Warren described as a "robber baron" seeking to "sideline the cops" by gutting the CFPB in the lead up to the launch of his own "X Money" payment platform. 

Along with lawsuits filed on Feb. 9 by the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents CFPB employees, the attorneys general from 23 states are suing to stop the dismantling of the CFPB, seeking an injunction on Trump's order to halt operations. "There is little debate that abusive subprime mortgage lending and the associated collapse of the real-estate market played a central role" in the Great Recession and housing collapse of 2008, the group of AGs wrote in their complaint. 

In response to litigation, acting CFPB Director Russ Vought said he would delay plans to cut off funding until Feb. 28. 

Meanwhile, two Trump allies who worked under the president during his first term in office have joined the CFPB. Mark Calabria, who ran the FHFA from 2019-2021, and Jeffrey Clark, an assistant attorney general for the DOJ from 2018-2021, have been appointed to senior positions at the bureau. 

Clark supported Trump's efforts to overturn the presidential election in 2020 and was among the unindicted co-conspirators in the DOJ's case against Trump.

There have also been numerous reports of potential layoffs at the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which could potentially disrupt the mortgage industry and lending to low-income consumers and first-time homebuyers. Upwards of 40% of the staff could be cut, Bloomberg reported.

Misinformation on the D.C. housing market?

With all of the layoffs either underway or planned in Washington, D.C., much attention has been paid to the city's housing market.

A viral social media post suggesting that hundreds of homes were listed for sale in response to the layoffs has since been debunked, and a Bright MLS review of MLS data found that recent layoffs have not had a "substantial impact" on the D.C. housing market.

"Based on our listing data, we're not seeing any evidence of a surge of listing activity in the Washington, D.C. region," Bright MLS Chief Economist Lisa Sturtevant wrote in a recent report. 

"In the broader D.C. region, defined by the counties and cities below, there were 2,829 new listings that came onto the market in the two-week period between February 3 and February 16, 2025. This is virtually unchanged from the same two weeks last year when there were 2,820 new listings on the market."