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Housing advocates celebrated a temporary victory last week after a lawsuit filed by tenants’ rights groups pushed the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to delay implementation of a policy change that would have gutted eviction protections for an estimated 3.8 million people in low-income households. The policy change was set to take effect on March 30, but HUD backed down on its implementation after tenants’ groups filed a lawsuit on March 2.

On March 13, HUD announced it would delay implementation of the policy change indefinitely and give the public 60 days to comment on the proposal, which would have left the nation’s poorest tenants in certain states vulnerable to “rapid, unfair evictions” for being “as little as one dollar short or one day late on rent,” according to the National Housing Law Project.

The proposal is backed by the landlord lobby and would revoke the 30-day notice rule, which requires federally subsidized housing authorities to notify tenants about unpaid rent and other charges at least 30 days before an eviction. The 30-day notice rule protects vulnerable renters in states with few legal protections, and the proposal is one of several by the Trump administration that would deepen housing insecurity amid an affordability crisis that is driving record rates of homelessness.

Scott Turner, President Donald Trump’s housing secretary at HUD, is also pushing controversial time limits and work requirements for federal housing assistance alongside new regulations that critics say are designed to separate families with mixed immigration status as part of Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

“Instead of addressing the housing crisis, Trump is dismantling programs and protections that keep our poorest neighbors housed,” said Hannah Adams, a senior staff attorney at the National Housing Law Project, in an interview. “The aggressive push to cut families’ housing benefits will harm all of us, while targeting immigrants, Black people, poor people, and people with disabilities.”

Trump Administration Threatens Housing for Millions in “War on the Poor”

HUD manages federal programs that fund housing projects and voucher programs for lower-income renters, doling out billions of dollars each year in subsidies earmarked by........

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