PRRAC — Connecting Research to Advocacy

Poverty & Race Research Action Council

You are here: Home / PRRAC Update / PRRAC Update: HUD attack on Boston; ROAD to Housing Act updates; 2026 travel recommendations (December 23, 2025)

PRRAC Update: HUD attack on Boston; ROAD to Housing Act updates; 2026 travel recommendations (December 23, 2025)

by

HUD Turns the Fair Housing Act on Its Head in Its Attack on the City of Boston: The New York Times reported that a political appointee from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) sent the City of Boston a letter on December 11, 2025 announcing that the Department was initiating an investigation of the City’s housing programs. The letter betrays a willful misunderstanding of what the Fair Housing Act requires and what it forbids. Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Craig Trainor attacks City programs that assist (or otherwise account for the needs of) income-eligible households, regardless of their race, and that the City designed with an awareness of racial and ethnic demographic data and patterns of residential segregation. There is simply no authority for the position that such policies violate the Fair Housing Act (or the Equal Protection Clause). Instead, the Fair Housing Act’s affirmatively furthering fair housing duty, as construed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in a decision that is binding on district court judges in Massachusetts, actually requires HUD and its grantees to consider such data when designing policy. Depending on a fact-specific analysis, the Fair Housing Act can but does not always constrain policies that were designed to further fair housing but that use a protected characteristic like race as an eligibility criterion. However, those nuances are not relevant here, as none of the City of Boston policies referenced in Assistant Secretary Trainor’s letter use race or other protected characteristics as eligibility criteria. There is a crisis of housing affordability in Boston, and communities of color are bearing the brunt of that crisis. The City of Boston should stand with those communities and refuse to back down in the face of baseless, politicized pressure from current HUD leadership.

Other news and resources

House Financial Services Committee Advances Bipartisan Housing Legislation: On December 17, the House Financial Services Committee approvedthe Housing for the 21st Century Act in a 50-1 vote. The bill has some – but not complete – overlap with the ROAD to Housing Act, which the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs previously approved through a similarly bipartisan vote. Notably, the Housing for the 21st Century Act does not have some of the provisions from the ROAD to Housing Act regarding which tenant advocates were most concerned, such as one expanding the Moving to Work program.

Eric Adams Appoints Rent Guidelines Board Members in Attempt to Stymie Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani’s Signature Rent Freeze Proposal: Outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams appointed a raft of members to the Rent Guidelines Board in a move that appears designed to prevent Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani from filling vacancies with members who would be amenable to his signature campaign proposal for a rent freeze. The Rent Guidelines Board has imposed rent freezes in the past, most notably during the administration of former Mayor Bill de Blasio, and the Mayor-Elect’s rent freeze proposal is consistent with controlling Takings Clause case law.

A Break from the Parade of Horribles – Housing Trivia: In this Update’s installment of A Break from the Parade of Horribles, we are sharing our vacation destination recommendations for 2026:

  • Audrey: Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee (Audrey emphasizes the Tennessee rather than the North Carolina portion of the area);
  • Dave: Reykjavik, Iceland (Dave particularly recommends the Sky Lagoon);
  • Thomas: Hopkins, Belize (sometimes a diving trip to Belize means you miss out on sandy beaches, but that is not true if you go to Hopkins!).

Standing with PRRAC at a Critical Moment: As we close out the year, we want to thank you again for standing with PRRAC at a moment when civil rights protections and housing programs are under sustained attack. Your support is helping fuel the next chapter of our work: advancing strong, affirmative fair housing and education policies at the state and local levels, in close partnership with grassroots advocates across the country.

Your generosity makes it possible for PRRAC to scale our research and advocacy, respond quickly to emerging policy threats, and provide the legal and policy tools our partners need to protect tenant rights, strengthen affordable housing programs, and expand access to opportunity.

If you’re planning a year-end contribution, here are a few helpful reminders to ensure your gift is completed before December 31:

  • Checks: Must be postmarked by December 31. Please make payable to “Poverty & Race Research Action Council” and mail to PRRAC, 740 15th St NW, Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20005.
  • Credit Cards: Gifts must be charged by December 31. You can make a secure online donation here.
  • IRAs: Qualified Charitable Distributions (for donors 70½+) must be received and deposited by December 31.
  • Donor-Advised Funds: Gifts must be initiated by December 31. PRRAC’s EIN number is 52-170507.
  • Matching Gifts: Your employer may be able to match your gift, doubling its impact.

Thank you for being a steadfast champion for racial justice and the basic rights to housing and education. We are deeply grateful to be in this work together!