The Trump administration faced a lawsuit last week, accused of “unlawfully” linking federal housing grants for the homeless to jurisdictions that align with the president’s “partisan agenda,” including areas of immigration enforcement and civil rights for transgender and non-binary individuals.

U.S. District Judge Mary S. McElroy in Rhode Island issued a temporary restraining order on Friday, stopping the allegedly unauthorized restrictions on federal housing funds through the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s “Continuum of Care (CoC) Builds” program, as indicated in court documents.

“The order ensures that providers and communities won’t be excluded from competing for critical housing resources simply due to their location in jurisdictions that don’t adhere to the administration’s ideological agenda, while the case is ongoing,” wrote the National Alliance to End Homelessness. This organization, along with the Women’s Development Corporation, is suing the government, as stated in a statement released Friday following the TRO’s issuance.

“For decades, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s homelessness programs have assisted states, localities, and service providers in creating permanent supportive housing to alleviate homelessness,” the statement noted. “The Trump-Vance administration’s abrupt introduction of radical, new grant criteria aimed to withdraw funding from entire communities based on political factors, such as whether jurisdictions uphold sanctuary protections, harm reduction strategies, or inclusive policies for transgender people.”

In their complaint, attorneys for the coalition — represented by Democracy Forward, National Homelessness Law Center, Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island, and ACLU Foundation of Rhode Island — detail how Congress allocated $75 million for HUD to construct permanent supportive housing for those in need. The department identified “qualified projects” and was “set to distribute these crucial funds” through federal grants before it allegedly “changed course” last week, as the grants are due to expire on Sept. 30.

“I think that it’s unfortunate that we’re here on these things that are done so last minute by these agencies,” McElroy, who was appointed by Trump in 2019, said Friday during a hearing held over Zoom, according to Reuters.

The government is allegedly seeking new applicants based on “newly announced criteria,” according to the groups’ lawsuit, which was filed Thursday.

“Under these new criteria, HUD will only award those funds for projects in jurisdictions aligned with the Administration’s broader social policy views and to applicants that will commit to them,” the complaint says. “And HUD is rushing the funds out the door, promising to award them during a seven day period on a first-come, first-served basis for projects that clear its ideological threshold.”

According to the groups, the government now disqualifies from consideration “any entity seeking to build housing in a jurisdiction with policies the administration disfavors,” per the complaint. This means there will be no funding for projects in a city or state that has not adopted the administration’s “draconian approach to local homelessness policies” and agreed to help enforce federal immigration law.

“Even in jurisdictions with policies the administration deems acceptable, entities effectively cannot compete for funding unless they profess agreement with the administration’s view that sex is binary and immutable and foreswear operating safe injection sites or similar programs designed to reduce the harm from drug use — even with wholly nonfederal funds,” the complaint alleges.

The groups argue that the government is violating the Constitution and does not have the authority to hold back funds in this way. They asked the court Thursday in the complaint to halt the “current rushed, unlawful award process” and preserve the funds at issue from expiration, allowing for their “prompt award” for projects that meet “lawful” criteria.

“We welcome the court’s decision to stop a rushed, lawless attempt to make essential funding contingent on a community’s compliance with harmful and unlawful restrictions the Trump-Vance administration is trying to impose,” wrote the National Alliance to End Homelessness on Friday after the TRO was granted by McElroy. “This order ensures that service providers can focus on what matters most: providing safe, stable housing and support to people in crisis. We will continue to fight to make sure housing resources remain available to all communities, free from political interference.”