Tenant-Advocates Urge Court of Appeals to Protect Tenants, Save Their Homes, and Uphold Preliminary Injunction

White House Plans to Terminate Critical Funding that Communities Depend on to Make Lifesaving Home Repairs Ahead of Extreme Weather

BOSTON, MA—Seven national, state, and local tenant-advocacy organizations yesterday filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, urging it to uphold a preliminary injunction that protects tenants and helps save their homes by allowing them access to federal funding through the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP). The GRRP is once-in-a-generation funding that supports critical repairs and modernizations at HUD-assisted, privately-owned multifamily properties, helping extend their useful life and protect them from future extreme weather. The preliminary injunction was issued in response to Trump’s executive order on federal energy funding, directing federal agencies to freeze programming and funding already authorized by Congress in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Laws (BIL). Awardees of the GRRP had their funding abruptly cut, and were forced to cease much-needed renovations. 

“No matter what we look like or where we come from, we want our families to have the freedom to drink clean water, breathe safe air, and live in a healthy home. But Trump cut critical funding that helps repair and bolster affordable housing against pests, toxins, and the elements. Cutting these funds worsens the housing crisis. To keep families safely housed now and into the future, our government must prioritize resilient reinvestment,” National Housing Law Project Senior Staff Attorney Stacey Tutt said.

“Many of the tenants in these buildings have been waiting for decades to see their homes restored to decent, safe, and sanitary condition,” Shriver Center on Poverty Law Staff Attorney Leah Levinger said. “The federal government promised them the funds to make that dream a reality, and they are depending on that promise.”

In the amicus brief, the Shriver Center on Poverty Law and the National Housing Law Project argue that the arbitrary termination of GRRP and other BIL programs would harm tenants, localities, tax payers, and others. Hundreds of properties, home to tens of thousands of poor and working families, depend on GRRP funds to move forward with long-delayed and critically necessary renovation work like upgrading aging ventilation systems, improving electrical efficiency, and sealing windows from wind and rain. 

“Safe, habitable, affordable housing is a basic human right, but all too often our federal housing programs have sold tenants short through austerity, redlining, and segregation. In authorizing and funding the GRRP, Congress took a small step towards remedying that legacy. The Trump Administration cannot – consistent with the rule of law – ignore that intent,” said Poverty & Race Research Action Council President and Executive Director Thomas Silverstein.

“Everyone, regardless of their income, should have safe and habitable housing. Low-income tenants in communities throughout Massachusetts and across the country are relying on promised GRRP funds to make critical repairs,” said Massachusetts Law Reform Institute Director of Community Driven Advocacy Andrea M. Park. “Failing to keep this promise will worsen individual and public health outcomes, undermine community climate readiness, and exacerbate the broader housing crisis. “

GRRP awardee properties are at risk of disappearing forever due to physical degradation or loss of their affordability restrictions. Allowing these projects to fail would intensify harm to tenants and their communities. Poor and working tenants, tenants with disabilities, and Black and Latino tenants have disproportionately worse health outcomes due to unaffordable energy costs. As human-driven climate change worsens, extreme temperatures will cause more preventable deaths, potentially doubling or tripling by 2065.

As described by tenants, their physical and mental health are consistently at risk, as well as their housing affordability if these projects do not receive this needed investment:

“You can see the mold coming through the walls . . . The roofing was so bad in the building that it would rain in my apartment. I had two living room sets that I had to throw away, that I had purchased with my own money . . . [O]ne of the custodians here, it was so bad . . . [t]he wall was so molded he had to knock much of it out. You could see clear . . . outside to the parking lot through my apartment.” 

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Laws include the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The Green and Resilient Retrofit Program was authorized by Congress in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The full text of the amicus brief and supporting organizations may be found here.

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The National Housing Law Project’s mission is to advance housing justice for poor people and communities. We achieve this by strengthening and enforcing the rights of tenants and low-income homeowners, increasing housing opportunities for underserved communities, and preserving and expanding the nation’s supply of safe and affordable homes. 

The Shriver Center on Poverty Law works to build a future free from poverty and racism, where everyone has equal power under the law. Shriver Center fights for economic and racial justice by litigating, shaping public policy, and training advocates.  

The Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC) is a civil rights law and policy organization based in Washington, D.C. Our mission is to promote research-based advocacy strategies to address structural inequality and change the systems that disadvantage low income people of color. PRRAC was founded in 1989, through an initiative of major civil rights, civil liberties, and antipoverty groups seeking to connect advocates with social scientists working at the intersection of race and poverty.

The Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (“MLRI”) is a statewide law and poverty center and principal support center for Massachusetts civil legal aid agencies. Our mission is to advance economic, social, and racial justice for low-income individuals and communities through legal action, legislative and administrative advocacy, coalition building, and legal education.

Through the Tenant Advocacy Clinic, Northwestern law students, under the supervision of a licensed attorney, provide pro bono legal assistance and advocacy tools to tenant associations seeking to improve their living conditions and low-income tenants facing evictions. The Tenant Advocacy Clinic is part of Northwestern Pritzker School of Law but speaks only for itself, not the university as a whole.