The Trump administration sent layoff notices to hundreds of Department of Housing and Urban Development staffers Friday, informing employees that their last day will be Dec. 9.
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The notices were sent to field offices in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Denver, Fort Worth, Miami, New Orleans, Philadelphia and more. The layoffs impact nearly 100 equal opportunity specialists, responsible for fair housing complaint investigations, according to documents viewed by Bloomberg.
At two regional offices, the entire Fair Housing staff will be cut. Those are Denver, which oversees Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana, and San Francisco, which manages California, Nevada and Arizona. Five other regional offices were hit hard but will maintain a smaller team.
In addition to the 114 Fair Housing staff cuts, HUD plans to lay off 103 employees in the Public and Indian Housing office, 86 in the Office of Housing, which are involved in operations and counseling, and 30 in the Office of Community Planning and Development, according to Bloomberg. Another report by ABC News placed the HUD terminations at approximately 442 employees.
“HUD is implementing a reduction in force to align our programs with the administration’s priorities and the appropriations available to the department,” the agency said in a statement to Bloomberg.
A spokesperson didn't respond to additional questions about cuts.
HUD has already experienced a shrinking workforce. Since January, an estimated 2,300 employees, or 23% of the agency’s staff, have voluntarily left, Bloomberg previously reported.
A whistleblower disclosure filed in August says the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity has lost nearly 70% of its attorneys since January due to greater policy shifts at HUD.
Those include a deprioritization of claims over policies that aren't explicitly discriminatory but can result in harm against protected classes, such as lenders restricting or denying mortgages to certain neighborhoods, a practice known as redlining.
Hundreds of thousands of government workers have been furloughed since Oct. 1 due to the government shutdown. Those still working in essential roles are set to miss their first paycheck this week, which could result in billions lost from the economy.
In a memo released Sept. 24, the Office of Management and Budget instructed federal agencies to carry out mass layoffs if and when the shutdown began. Those terminations began on Friday.
In total, more than 4,000 workers received reduction in force notices Friday, ABC News reported, citing a joint lawsuit from the American Federation of Government Employees and the AFL-CIO.
The Treasury, Health and Human Services, and Education departments will bear the brunt of the layoffs, according to the filing.
The Environmental Protection Agency also issued a general “intent to RIF” notice to approximately 20 to 30 employees Friday, indicating there may be more cuts coming.
There is a possibility that the federal government will walk back some of the layoffs. In March, several HUD field policy and management offices were shut down due to a round of RIF notices, but the agency didn't act on the terminations in the long run, Bloomberg reported.
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