Sen. Andy Kim speaks out against the Trump administration’s terminations of federal workers and other cuts made in the name of efficiency. New Jersey’s junior senator, a Democrat, spoke outside One Gateway Center, where several federal offices are located, on March 18, 2025. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)
By almost any metric, the housing situation for many New Jersey residents is bad and getting worse.
Homelessness is up, rising taxes have pushed the average property-tax bill over $10,000, and the state has 200,000 fewer affordable rental units than it needs at a time when towns are fighting such obligations.
The Trump administration, though, is making things worse by firing federal workers tasked with helping vulnerable residents secure safe, affordable housing, according to Sen. Andy Kim (D).
“Right now, more than ever, what we see is an attack by President Trump, by Elon Musk, against public servants, against people who are serving this nation, against people who are trying to deliver services to the American people in this incredibly difficult time,” Kim said Tuesday.
Kim gathered union leaders, affordable housing advocates, impacted workers and residents, and other lawmakers together outside a Newark high-rise that houses federal offices to speak out against the terminations, which remain in limbo after two judges declared them illegal and ordered the workers temporarily reinstated.
“We cannot come in and fire people for absolutely nothing and then call it efficiency,” said Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-10).
It’s unclear how many of the 24,500 probationary workers fired worked for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Kim said. But the Trump administration in February proposed slashing HUD’s staff by half, according to the Associated Press.
In Newark, one of the fired workers was Mohammed AbdelRaheem, who started working in October as an engineer in HUD’s public and Indian housing office. In that job, he conducted inspections and investigations into housing complaints and made sure public housing authorities complied with federal regulations.
“Some of these cases involved serious fraud, life-threatening conditions, and I worry about how these complaints are being handled now that I have been unfairly terminated,” AbdelRaheem said. “What is happening to federal employees is wrong, and we will not stay silent.”
In addition to reducing HUD’s staff, the Trump administration also cut tens of millions of dollars in HUD contracts and funding.
Rep. Rob Menendez (D-8) said almost 300,000 New Jersey residents rely on federal housing programs, including nearly 40,000 in his district.
The need is even greater than that, said Staci Berger, president and CEO of the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey. Only 1 out of 4 families who qualify for rental assistance in America actually get it, because both funding and housing are in short supply, she said.
At the same time, she noted, New Jersey will enter the fourth round this year of affordable housing obligations under the Mount Laurel Doctrine, a series of court rulings dating back to 1975 that require municipalities to provide a “fair share” of affordable housing. Each round is a reassessment to see if towns are meeting their obligations as New Jersey’s population grows and changes.
“We are on the precipice of the fourth round of Mount Laurel housing responsibilities. So these cuts could not come at a worse time. We need not only the resources HUD has been allocated, but also the people to make them happen,” Berger said.
Gabriel Douglas stood beside Kim and his supporters to offer herself up “as living proof” of the success of housing assistance.
Raised in Trenton, she struggled with poverty, especially after she became pregnant at the age of 16. She lived in a homeless shelter until she received assistance and changed the trajectory of her life so much that she eventually worked for the City of Trenton administering housing aid and otherwise helping nonprofits secure funding to help vulnerable residents like she had been.
“There are thousands of people just like me who have relied on these programs to break cycles of poverty and create better lives,” Douglas said. “Instead of cutting funding, we should be strengthening and evaluating these programs to ensure they continue to serve those who are in need.”
Menendez said he’s a member of a House “litigation working group and rapid response task force” that have challenged Trump orders and policies.
“We’re already seeing success in the courts. We will continue to press there,” he said.
Kim called out the “sick irony” of Musk — the richest person in the world — blasting public servants as overpaid while taking the reins of a federal government that gives his companies billions of dollars in contracts.
“That is a conflict of interest, and that is what we should call corruption, and that’s what this is about,” Kim said. “It’s not about efficiency. It’s about padding their wallets. Any money that they say they save is going to go to trillions of dollars of tax cuts to people who are building rocket ships to outer space for their own personal hobbies. That is not what this country is about.”
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