Appeals Court Blocks Cuts to Millions in Housing Funding for Cambridge, Boston

The First Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a lower court order blocking the Trump administration from restricting funding for homelessness services, siding with Cambridge, Boston, and a coalition of cities and nonprofits that sued to halt the changes.

Cambridge joined the lawsuit against the Department of Housing and Urban Development in December, after the federal government moved to tie eligibility for Continuum of Care grants to compliance with executive orders banning diversity programs and funding for abortion access. A U.S. District Court judge temporarily blocked the policy on Dec. 19, 2025.

In late March, the District Court denied the administration’s request to lift that injunction. The federal government appealed, but the First Circuit rejected the challenge, noting the administration contested only the continuation of the injunction — not the underlying order.

The appeals court left the injunction in place, warning that lifting it would have “devastating impacts” on the cities and nonprofits involved.

“In anticipation of potential funding cuts, housing programs and support services would be ended or drastically curtailed, personnel would be laid off, and relationships with local housing and service providers would be ruined,” the court wrote.

The Continuum of Care program is a key federal funding stream for housing and support services for people experiencing homelessness, including more than a dozen programs in Cambridge. Grants support long-term housing placements, case management, and services for families, veterans, and people with disabilities.

City officials say the threatened changes could still create immediate funding gaps. Because new grants would not have been distributed until months after existing ones expired, cities risked losing support for housing programs mid-year.

Cambridge receives $6.4 million annually through the program and had expected to lose more than $4 million — putting more than 200 people at risk of losing housing.

City Councilor Marc C. McGovern said the ruling offers temporary relief but warned the legal fight is far from over.

“Once again the courts have stepped in to protect vulnerable people from Trump’s illegal attacks,” he wrote. “I assume this decision will be appealed, but for now, Trump’s draconian cuts are stopped, and we can breathe a bit easier.”

City Manager Yi-An Huang ’05 said Cambridge’s role in the case depended on a last-minute push by city staff to compile supporting data.

“A lot of that litigation requires a lot of detailed work that’s being gathered by parties that are impacted,” he said. “A lot of city staff spent a lot of their Thanksgiving vacation gathering that data really last minute to put it in the brief so that we could file that lawsuit.”

In a joint statement, Cambridge and the other plaintiffs said the ruling preserves critical protections as the case moves forward.

“As the Trump-Vance administration continues to weaponize federal funding and attempts to hold hostage support for people experiencing homelessness — including families, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities — we are relieved that the appeals court has left the order we earned late last year in place,” they wrote.

“We will continue to pursue this case and remain dedicated to protecting proven solutions to homelessness and the hundreds of thousands of people who rely on this vital support,” they added.

The case is one of several legal challenges Cambridge has brought against the federal government. The city is a plaintiff in two other lawsuits over housing and education policy and has filed amicus briefs in more than a dozen additional cases.

“We’ve tried to be very active in the courts, and I think it’s made a difference,” Huang said. “We’ve seen some of those court wins help provide some of that relief.”

—Staff writer Maya Fu can be reached at [email protected].

—Staff writer Risha Sinha can be reached at [email protected].