On April 15, 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 (HUD)’s 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.

Agencies froze these funds after a January executive order 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 received GRRP awards. LeadingAge has engaged in persistent advocacy and external outreach focused on HUD, congressional offices, and media (AP, Bloomberg, NPR, Affordable Housing Finance, among others) to unleash these funds.

The motion, filed in March by Democracy Forward and the National Council of Nonprofits, sought to “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.”

In 2024, HUD made 270 GRRP awards to multifamily housing providers. After the January executive order, 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 DOGE moved to terminate the program.

The order also requires defendants to provide “written notice of the Court’s preliminary injunction to all grantees who have been awarded funds under the Inflation Reduction Act or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act; HUD sent emails on April 16 to all awardees. The order also requires all defendants to file a status report with the court on or before April 16; LeadingAge is watching for this.

Responding to the preliminary injunction, LeadingAge president and CEO Katie Smith Sloan said, “This ruling is a critical first step toward victory for the millions of low-income older adults who rely on federally assisted affordable housing. The GRRP is a unique and much-needed opportunity for housing organizations to access money to preserve and modernize affordable housing, including properties for older adults.  …The court’s ruling restores hope and momentum, and we remain committed to advocating for full, uninterrupted access to the GRRP funds that strengthen our nation’s housing infrastructure and help older adults age with dignity in their homes and communities.”

Read the ruling here.  And keep up with this and related news via our EO Compliance, Funding Freeze and DOGE Updates serial post.