The Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana displays an exhibit called "Unwelcomed: A Fair Housing History of Sales and Lending Discrimination."
(Photo provided/Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana)
The Trump administration has terminated funding that a local fair housing organization used to investigate discrimination.
The nonprofit Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana has already spent most of the nearly $139,000 grant that came from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. A letter notifying the housing center of the cut says the organization should be reimbursed for work already completed.
But the nonprofit won’t be allowed to spend any more money with the grant, which was awarded in 2023. It is one of three the organization receives from HUD.
And Amy Nelson, the housing center’s longtime executive director, is worried the federal government won’t release grants for 2025-26. That funding makes up the bulk of the organization’s budget.
In the termination letter, HUD said the decision came from President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The letter says the grant “no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities.”
How will this affect the housing center?
Nelson said in an email that the grant getting cut supported the organization’s work in combatting discrimination in mortgage lending, homeowners insurance and tenant screening.
“Although the overall loss of funding is much smaller than many of our fair housing colleagues,” Nelson said, “it is still very impactful to the FHCCI in these challenging budget times.”
All of the HUD grants combine for about $840,000, Nelson said. That’s 85% of the organization's budget.
If HUD doesn’t release those grants, as Nelson fears, she said the consequences would be devastating.
Federal decisions have local impact
The cut to the fair housing center is the latest example of decisions at the federal level impacting Indianapolis residents.
The Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center based at IU Indy closed after the U.S. Department of Education announced in a news release Feb. 13 its funding was being terminated. The news release said the center “supported divisive training” on diversity, equity and inclusion at schools and educational agencies.
And in reaction to a Trump executive order for the federal government to recognize only "two biological sexes" and to end programs that "promote gender ideology," the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center is removing gender-neutral bathrooms and requiring staff to erase pronouns from their email signatures and documents.
This article first appeared on Mirror Indy and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
