Preliminary Injunction Granted for GRRP Housing Awards Freeze
(April 22, 2025) On April 15th, the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island granted a motion for preliminary injunction against the Trump administration’s freeze on awards to multifamily affordable housing providers through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP) and, more broadly, on freezes by several federal agencies for funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).
Agencies froze these funds after a January executive order (EO) from the White House and an associated memo from the Office of Management and Budget directed agencies to pause these acts’ funding.
The IRA included $1.4 billion for the GRRP to preserve multifamily affordable housing. More than 50 LeadingAge members across the nation received GRRP awards. LeadingAge has engaged in persistent advocacy with HUD, congressional offices, and the media to unleash these funds.
The motion, filed in March by Democracy Forward and the National Council of Nonprofits, sought to “immediately lift the Trump administration’s unlawful freeze on billions in congressionally approved funds.”
“Agencies do not have unlimited authority to further a President’s agenda, nor do they have unfettered power to hamstring in perpetuity two statutes passed by Congress during the previous administration,” Judge Mary McElroy said in her ruling.
Among the eight directives to the federal agency defendants, Judge McElroy prohibits them from “freezing, halting, or pausing…the processing and payment of funding that (1) was appropriated under the Inflation Reduction Act or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and (2) has already been awarded.” The order also requires defendants to provide written notice of the court’s preliminary injunction to all grantees to have been awarded funds under the IRA or the IIJA; HUD sent emails on April 16th to all awardees. The order also requires all defendants to file a status report with the court on or before April 16th, which they did.
In 2024, HUD made 270 GRRP awards to multifamily housing providers. After the January EO, HUD stopped processing and advancing most awards. The 20 already-closed awards and some 40-50 awards close to closing were allowed to continue; the remainder have had minimal, if any, communication from HUD. Meanwhile, there have been consistent reports that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) moved to terminate the program.
“This ruling is a critical first step toward victory for the millions of low-income older adults who rely on federally assisted affordable housing,” LeadingAge President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan said in a statement on the judge’s ruling.
Read the ruling here.
Contact: Annalyse Komoroske Denio, akomoroskedenio@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8866