The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development headquarters. Photo by HUD Office of Public Affairs.
Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, which provides legal services to low-income Minnesotans, announced Wednesday that the federal government canceled a $425,000 grant that funds legal help for people facing housing discrimination or sexual harassment from landlords.
The grant cancellation is part of the sweeping federal spending cuts directed by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has long paid private nonprofits to do the work of fielding complaints and litigating cases against landlords who violate the Fair Housing Act. In Minnesota, that work is largely handled by Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid in partnership with Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services.
The grant is a fraction of the overall MMLA budget, but funds the entirety of the fair housing program, said Julia Zwak, managing attorney of the housing unit at MMLA.
MMLA will use other funding sources, including donations, to pay for its fair housing work for as long as that is possible, Zwak said.
“It’s a fundamental justice issue that we see as important,” Zwak said.
The Associated Press reported on Feb. 28 that of the 162 existing Fair Housing Initiatives Program grants, around half were slated for cancellation.
The Fair Housing Initiatives Program grant in Minnesota covered legal help for everyday discrimination cases, like landlords who refuse to accommodate a disability or a service animal. Some of those cases can be resolved by a letter from an attorney — others escalate to litigation.
In 2019, Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid and the Department of Justice sued a landlord who was accused of sexually harassing 23 tenants. The landlord invented fees, then told the tenants he would remove the fees in exchange for sexual favors.
The victims received $736,000 in the settlement, and the landlord was barred from managing properties ever again.