National Housing Law Project Opposes HUD Proposal To Repeal HUD Tenant Protection Against Rapid And Unfair Evictions

WASHINGTON D.C.—The National Housing Law Project (NHLP) today formally opposed Trump’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposal to allow for the rapid eviction of HUD tenants by revoking its 2024 Eviction Prevention Rule. If the proposed rule is finalized, 3.8 million people in 2.2 million families who live in public housing or Section 8 project-based rental assistance housing will be at a higher risk of losing their homes.

“This proposal is an unjustified and poorly reasoned attempt to revoke critical tenant protections and make it easier to evict HUD tenants for resolvable payment issues that are often outside of a tenant’s control. These protections have been successful in stopping unnecessary evictions from HUD housing by providing tenants with time and information to correct ledger errors, recertify their income, recover from temporary hardships, and access rental assistance. Revocation of the rule will increase preventable evictions, disparately impacting Black families, women, and families with children, with severe personal and societal costs. HUD should withdraw this proposal and preserve the 2024 eviction prevention rule in full,” the National Housing Law Project wrote in a comment to HUD.

In a comment, NHLP explained why HUD’s proposed rule is harmful:

• If the 2024 Eviction Prevention Rule is revoked, HUD tenants in states across the country would face eviction in as few as three days for being as little as one dollar short on rent. The families hurt most by the proposed revocation are extremely low income, and include many seniors, people with disabilities, and children. People most at risk live in states with short eviction notice periods and limited protections under state law. 
• HUD-subsidized housing providers receive millions of federal subsidy dollars to house the country’s most poor tenants. If evicted, these families lose not just the roof over their head, but also their desperately-needed housing assistance. Because of these high stakes, HUD has always heavily regulated HUD-tenancies including the process for evicting HUD-subsidized tenants. The 2024 Eviction Prevention Rule is in line with HUD’s previous regulation of HUD tenancies, and its statutory authority to do so.
• Evictions of federally subsidized tenants disproportionately harm people of color and children. Evictions not only place individual strain on tenants but collective strain on the communities and systems that bear the costs of homelessness.
• The 2024 Eviction Prevention Rule successfully prevents evictions by providing time to pay rent that is due and to fix ledger and recertification errors that are not the tenants’ fault.
• HUD’s abrupt reversal and rejection of its previous rule – which reflected input from advocates, tenants, and housing providers – is unjustified and relies on outdated and misleading data.
• HUD failed to quantify the costly impact of revocation on evicted tenants, state and local governments, and other public and private entities.

HUD’s proposal is part of the Trump administration’s attempts to destroy the federal housing programs and worsen the housing crisis. HUD’s own regulatory impact analysis acknowledges that providing a longer notice period prevents nonpayment-related move outs. 

The 2024 Eviction Prevention Rule requires landlords to give notice to some HUD tenants at least 30 days before filing an eviction for the nonpayment of rent, and allow tenants to pay any balance owed during that period. It also requires that HUD tenants receive an itemized statement showing what they owe, and critical information about how to lower their rent portion if it is unaffordable to them. The rule ensures tenants receive adequate notice of what they allegedly owe, that they are not evicted due to the housing authority or owner’s miscalculation of their rent, and that they have adequate time to pay off any legitimate balance and remain housed. 

Read NHLP’s full comment to HUD here.