Elizabeth Warren warns new Trump federal housing rule could put LGBTQ+ people on the street

The senators argue that the proposal goes beyond President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting so-called “gender ideology” by striking sexual orientation protections without making that change clear to the public.

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A housing fight inside a housing crisis

“The Trump Administration would rather you didn’t notice that it’s enabling housing discrimination against the LGBTQ community by quietly removing sexual orientation and gender identity from its list of protected characteristics,” Warren told The Advocate in an email statement. “LGBTQ Americans, who are disproportionately at risk of homelessness, deserve a safe place to call home.”

The warning comes just days after the Senate overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan housing affordability package co-led by Warren and Republican U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina. The bill, known as the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, passed 85-5 and aims to increase housing supply, lower costs, and limit large investors’ ability to buy up single-family homes.

But even as Congress weighs one of the most significant federal housing packages in decades, Warren and the other senators say HUD is advancing a separate rule that would make housing and shelter access less secure for LGBTQ+ people.

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What the Trump rule would change

The proposed rule, published April 28 in the Federal Register, would revise HUD’s Equal Access regulations to remove references to “gender” and “gender identity” or replace them with “sex,” as defined by Trump’s January 20, 2025, executive order. That order directs federal agencies to recognize only two sexes, male and female, and orders HUD to begin rulemaking to rescind the 2016 Equal Access rule. Public comments on the HUD rule close on June 29.

“HUD’s proposed rule would remove all references to ‘gender’ and ‘gender identity’ from HUD regulations, and replace those references where relevant with the term ‘sex,’ as defined in the President’s EO,” the senators write. “The proposed rule, however, goes further than the President’s EO directive by striking ‘sexual orientation’ across all HUD regulations – a move so egregious it appears the Administration would prefer no one notice it.”

The letter says the rule would affect fair housing enforcement, the Housing Choice Voucher Program, programs serving people experiencing homelessness and domestic violence survivors, community development programs, Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS, and Indian and Native Hawaiian housing programs.

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Why senators say LGBTQ+ people are at risk

The practical effect, the senators warn, would be to make access to housing and shelter more precarious for people already at disproportionate risk of losing both. As The Advocate previously reported, the rule would force federally funded shelters and housing programs to decide placement based on sex assigned at birth rather than gender identity. If finalized, it would affect emergency shelters, domestic violence shelters, homeless housing programs, and other federally funded facilities with shared sleeping quarters or bathrooms.

That could mean a transgender woman fleeing abuse is turned away from a women’s shelter. It could also mean a cisgender woman who does not conform to traditional expectations of femininity is asked to prove she belongs there.

“This proposed rule would deny safe and equal access to housing and shelter for anyone who a grantee chooses to question and will disproportionately affect gay, transgender, and intersex Americans,” the senators write.The rule would allow grant recipients, subrecipients, owners, operators, managers, and providers of single-sex or sex-specific facilities to require “assurances and evidence” to confirm the sex of someone seeking service. The senators say that would invite invasive questioning, document demands, and subjective judgments by shelter workers or social service providers.

The Advocate previously reported that HUD does not clearly define what counts as proof, raising concerns that shelters could demand identification documents or medical records, or rely on staff discretion to determine who looks feminine enough to enter. For people arriving at a domestic violence shelter in crisis, those decisions can determine whether they get a bed or are sent back into danger.

“A shelter provider should not be directed by the federal government to implement policies that would force them to filter residents based on a social worker’s perception of their gender,” the senators write.

HUD has framed the proposal as a way to protect women’s shelters and align agency policy with Trump’s executive order. In a press release announcing the rule change, Turner said HUD was moving to “bring biological truth and sanity back” to department policies.

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The senators reject that premise. “While the administration claims this is an effort to ‘defend women’s rights,’ the reality is that it will target the entire LGBTQ+ community, lead women to be harassed and investigated regarding their sex, and deny Americans access to their fair housing rights under the law,” the letter says.

The legal fight behind the rule

The senators also cite the Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which held that discrimination “because of sex” under Title VII includes discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. HUD under President Joe Biden later concluded that the Fair Housing Act’s sex discrimination protections likewise prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Trump administration has moved to reverse that understanding. The senators say HUD leadership has already undermined fair housing, civil rights, and Violence Against Women Act enforcement, including by telling fair housing complainants last year that housing decisions based on sexual orientation were “not subject to federal fair housing laws.”

The proposed rule would also attempt to preempt conflicting state and local laws, according to the letter, and HUD could use penalties, including the loss of federal funding, to force compliance.

The senators say HUD itself acknowledges that the rule could result in people “being denied access to their preferred single-sex shelters or their preferred accommodations in other shelters” and being required to find “other shelter options.” The senators warn that those options may not exist, citing National Alliance to End Homelessness data showing that 61 percent of states and territories already have too few shelter beds to meet demand.

“The FHAct does not mandate HUD to choose between protecting one protected group over another, nor are women and LGBTQ+ individuals mutually exclusive or conflicting groups,” the senators write. “HUD is required by law to provide fair and equal housing protections to all Americans.”

HUD did not respond to The Advocate’s request for comment.