REPORT: HUD To Ax Half Of Its Workers, Launch Task Force To Study More Cuts

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development intends to slash 50% of its workforce as a part of sweeping cuts across the entire federal government, the agency's union head told Bloomberg Law.

The department will let go of employees in offices that enforce civil rights laws, put together data about the housing market and pay to rebuild communities after disasters, Antonio Gaines, president of the American Federation of Government Employees National Council 222, told the outlet.

The cuts don't include any employees at the Federal Housing Administration, which provides mortgage insurance on loans, he told Bloomberg Law. HUD employed about 8,900 people full time as of 2023, according to its website.

Neither the agency or its union immediately responded to a request for comment. 

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who is leading the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, have made the reduction of the federal workforce a top priority in the first month of the new administration.

Trump signed an executive order Tuesday to “significantly reduce the size of government.” The order directed agency heads to work with DOGE to shrink the size of the federal workforce and limit hiring to essential positions.

Additionally, the deferred resignation program the administration offered last month is now closed and 75,000 federal employees accepted the offer. About 2.3 million federal employees qualified for the program, meaning roughly 3.3% of employees took it.

Further cuts to the nation's housing department could also be on the way after newly confirmed HUD Secretary Scott Turner on Thursday launched a Department of Government Efficiency Task Force to review how HUD is spending American taxpayer dollars. 

The task force will be made up of HUD employees who will examine how to best maximize the agency’s budget and ensure all programs, processes and personnel are working together to advance the purpose of the department, HUD said in a press release.

“HUD will be detailed and deliberate about every dollar spent to serve rural, tribal and urban communities,” Turner said in the release.

“Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, we are no longer in a business-as-usual posture and the DOGE task force will play a critical role in helping to identify and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse and ultimately better serve the American people. We have already identified over $260 million in savings and we have more to accomplish.”