HUD Investigating Boston’s Housing Policies

The Trump administration is targeting a prominent city with a Democratic leader for allegedly discriminatory housing policies.

Last week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development informed Boston Mayor Michelle Wu of an investigation into the city’s housing policies, the New York Times reported. The probe involves alleged violations of federal laws against discrimination in sales or rentals based on race, sex or national origin.

In the letter addressed to Wu, HUD assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity Craig Trainor alleged Boston prioritized people of color in its affordable housing efforts, rather than all low-income households. The subtext of the letter — which follows the footsteps of the administration’s war on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives — is that white Bostonians are being discriminated against.

“At your office’s direction, however, city officials have set out to smuggle ‘racial equity into every layer of operations in city government,’” Trainor wrote, referencing Boston’s racial justice initiatives.

The investigation is the first by the Trump administration under the Civil Rights Act centered on alleged racial discrimination by a city’s housing practices. Findings from the investigation can be used for charges, Trainor said.

“Boston will never abandon our commitment to fair and affordable housing,” Wu’s office said in a statement, calling the investigation “unhinged attacks from Washington.”

Since Wu took office in 2021, she’s shepherded more than 5,000 affordable housing units into Boston, according to the city. She won a second term in November.

The Trump administration’s efforts to overhaul the way fair housing is governed in the country have proven controversial.

HUD moved to fire two of its own lawyers after they accused the agency of gutting fair housing enforcement. Both were signatories on a whistleblower disclosure made to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, alleging gross mismanagement and threats to public safety within HUD’s fair housing office.

— Holden Walter-Warner