Fair housing groups notch win in legal battle with HUD 

This week in Washington, D.C., a federal judge blocked HUD from moving forward with a major "restructuring" of fair housing grants the department had announced earlier this summer.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook responded to President Donald Trump's renewed efforts to fire her in a fiery letter that suggested he and several of his cabinet members have made the same mistakes she has been accused of making.

In other recent D.C. news, several more officials at Fannie Mae have reportedly lost their jobs.

Judge grants TRO in lawsuit about HUD funding cuts

A judge has granted a temporary restraining order seeking to block HUD from implementing changes to how some fair housing initiatives and programs are funded. HUD's actions would have withdrawn funding from over 100 fair housing groups that rely on the grants typically funded through the Fair Housing Incentives Program.

The Massachusetts Fair Housing Center and the National Fair Housing Alliance sued HUD and HUD Secretary Scott Turner over the changes in July.

"HUD classifies these sweeping changes as a large-scale modernization effort, aimed at broadening participation and aligning discretionary funding with current fair housing priorities" — a "pithy description" that "falls woefully short of the mark in both form and substance," U.S. District Judge Myong J. Joun wrote in an Aug. 26 order.

HUD's reasoning also "does not add up; the changes cut out more fair housing organizations than they include, limit fair housing organization grants to only five organizations over the next year, and limit funds to organizations with an annual budget of at least five million dollars," the order added.

Joun acknowledged that granting the temporary restraining order leaves the department "little time" to revise its budget and ordered HUD "to adopt their FY2024 structure in allocating the FY2025 funds."

Trump has made his own mortgage 'mistakes,' Fed gov alleges

In an Aug. 26 letter addressed to White House counsel David Warrington, attorneys for Lisa Cook responded to the mortgage fraud allegations President Trump has used to justify his efforts to remove the Fed governor from office.

In August 2025, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director (FHFA) Bill Pulte accused Cook of falsifying bank and property documents to "acquire more favorable loan terms." After Pulte referred the matter to the DOJ, Trump announced on social media that he had fired Cook, who sued to keep her position shortly thereafter.

While Cook's lawsuit is ongoing, the U.S. Supreme Court noted in a June opinion that she wasn't given a chance to respond to the allegations before Trump attempted to fire her, a point that appeared to prompt the White House's invitation earlier this month for her to do so.

Attorney Abbe Lowell reiterated Cook's denial of "mortgage fraud or any intentional wrongdoing" in the Aug. 26 letter, writing, "there is no legally cognizable cause for removing her from the Federal Reserve Board." Attempting to fire Cook based on Pulte's referral "would ignore the facts and the law," Lowell added.

Cook's "apparent mistake on a form provided to her by her lender, which was aware of her other residences, was unintentional, not criminal, and occurred in her private capacity before she took office," the letter said.

Lowell also pointed the finger at the president and several members of his cabinet. In the early 1990s, Trump "reportedly acquired 'primary' residence mortgages for two different Florida homes just seven weeks apart," though "neither property was President Trump's primary residence."

"The President clearly recognizes that making such a mistake does not render a person — not himself nor the five members of his cabinet — unfit for office. … And doing so selectively would raise troubling questions about why President Trump is singling out Governor Cook," the letter concluded.

More layoffs at Fannie Mae

Several Fannie Mae employees lost their jobs last week, according to multiple media reports.

The layoffs impacted about a dozen people, including some in leadership positions, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Journal's story noted that Pulte appeared to hint at staffing changes in an Aug. 21 post on social media, writing, "Technology is improving and providing opportunities for us to remove unnecessary processes and unfortunately at times personnel."

Real Estate News has reached out to the FHFA and Fannie Mae for comment.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have both experienced multiple staffing shakeups in the 18 months since Pulte was tapped to lead the FHFA. After overhauling the boards of both government-sponsored enterprises in March 2025, Freddie Mac's CEO was ousted and more than 100 Fannie Mae employees were fired. An additional wave of layoffs at Fannie Mae last fall impacted over 60 roles.