The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has launched a sweeping civil rights investigation into the city of Boston, accusing Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration of implementing housing policies that unlawfully favor black, Latino, and other minority residents. The probe, announced Thursday, represents one of the most aggressive federal interventions yet in the Trump administration’s broader effort to dismantle local diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives it argues violate anti-discrimination law.
In a sharply worded letter to Wu, HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity said, “The context of race, fair housing is not about ‘the absence of racial discrimination . . . but the presence of deliberate systems . . . to achieve and sustain racial equity.’ But this is wrong. The text of the Fair Housing Act is unmistakably focused on eliminating discrimination in the housing market and outlining the penalties for engaging in this kind of discrimination.”
Assistant Secretary Craig Trainor wrote to Wu, “At your office’s direction, however, City officials have set out to smuggle ‘racial equity into every layer of operations in City government.’” The letter added, “City Officials Have Enthusiastically Embraced and Appear to Have Implemented the City’s Proposed Racial Spoils System.”
HUD Secretary Scott Turner echoed that language, calling Boston’s approach a “social engineering project” driven by DEI ideology rather than legitimate housing needs. “This warped mentality will be fully exposed,” Turner said, vowing the city would be brought into compliance with federal law. Turner has previously criticized what he calls race-based policymaking and, earlier this week, blamed former President Joe Biden for housing pressures tied to immigration, citing HUD’s newly released “Worst Case Housing Needs” report.
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At issue are several city housing plans—most notably the Boston Housing Strategy 2025, the Assessment of Fair Housing, and the Anti-Displacement Action Plan—which call for targeted outreach to black and Latino families, increased lending in communities of color, and allocations of homeownership opportunities intended “particularly” for BIPOC households. One goal states that 65 percent of city-supported homeownership opportunities should go to BIPOC residents. HUD argues that these provisions constitute explicit racial preferences prohibited under federal civil rights law and past Supreme Court precedent that rejects “outright racial balancing.”
HUD’s letter also criticizes Boston’s use of racially based data tools, including maps that classify neighborhoods partly by racial composition to identify areas at “high risk” of displacement and thus eligible for more city investment. The department said these classifications revive the logic of “government-sponsored redlining,” even if intended to combat inequity. It further alleges that city agencies and nonprofit partners have implemented “race-conscious marketing and buyer selection,” and that Boston has pressured banks and developers to adopt race-based benchmarks.
The investigation reflects the Trump administration’s broader shift in civil rights enforcement, which has increasingly targeted DEI programs while cutting back on traditional fair housing oversight.
HUD will request documents from the city within 10 days, after which investigators may file formal discrimination charges or refer the case to the Justice Department.
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