Boston is joining seven other cities and counties in a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration after the White House moved to withhold $3.6 billion in federal grants to address homelessness and improve public transit, Mayor Michelle Wu’s office announced in a press release Monday.
Boston will lose nearly $48 million in already-awarded funds if the city does not agree to comply with a range of Trump-issued executive orders and grant conditions, which the city said are “unrelated to housing and likely unconstitutional.”
“We are joining other cities and counties across the country to protect critical funding to prevent homelessness and house families in need,” Wu said in a statement. “Boston will not back down on making our city a home for everyone.”
The grants the federal government is withholding are part of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s “Continuum of Care” program, which the city said is the “single largest source of federal funding Boston and other cities use to address homelessness.” Trump’s administration is also withholding some transit-related grants administered by the US Department of Transportation and the Federal Transit Administration, according to the lawsuit.
The city partners with local nonprofits to use those housing grants to help connect more than 2,000 people and families experiencing homelessness with stable housing, along with other supportive services like health care and counseling, every year.
The people who benefit from the programs that rely on these funds include veterans, families, people with disabilities, survivors of domestic violence, and other people in crisis, according to the city. More than 18 local nonprofits, including Pine Street Inn, HomeStart, and Casa Myrna, also depend on these federal grants to pay employees and provide services, the city said.
Wu’s administration said that complying with many of the new federal executive orders would force the city to compromise on its values, and also conflict with local laws.
The lawsuit takes issue with several of Trump’s executive orders, including those that make federal funds conditional on municipalities agreeing to not promote so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts; agreeing to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement efforts; not supporting transgender or gender-diverse people, and not promoting access to abortion.
“These unlawful conditions are imposed to direct and coerce grant recipients to comply with the President’s policy agenda,” the plaintiffs wrote in the lawsuit.
Should Boston agree to the Trump administration’s conditions, and the Trump administration found that the city was not in compliance with those executive orders based on “this federal administration’s unfounded and unsupported interpretation of the laws,” Boston would be on the hook for paying back three times the amount of the original grants, according to the city’s press release.
That would put needed housing for thousands of residents at risk, as well as put Boston in a bad financial position, the city said.
Seven other cities and counties have signed on as plaintiffs in the lawsuit alongside Boston, including King County, Pierce County, and Snohomish County in Washington; New York City; Columbus, Ohio; Santa Clara County, Calif.; and the city and county of San Francisco, Calif.
Niki Griswold can be reached at niki.griswold@globe.com. Follow her @nikigriswold.