HUD’s subsidized housing tenants need to organize and fight back

HUD’s subsidized housing tenants need to organize and fight back

Fight back, or lose HUD’s subsidized housing programs forever

By Lynda Carson - November 3, 2025

It’s day 35 of the government shutdown, the convicted felon President Donald J. Trump wants to destroy HUD’s subsidized housing programs, and reportedly, HUD Secretary Scott Turner has sabotaged HUD, and HUD’s website https://www.hud.gov/#openModal since he became the HUD Secretary.

After tossing some crumbs to the poor and hungry SNAP recipients short of what they are owed, what’s to keep the convicted felon President Donald J. Trump from doing the same thing to HUD’s subsidized housing tenants in December? What a world…

In the San Francisco Bay Area, Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Alameda County, County of Marin, and Contra Costa County, somehow HUD’s subsidized housing tenants need to get angry as hell for what has been happening, they need to organize, and fight back to save HUD’s subsidized housing programs, including the Housing Choice Voucher Program a.k.a. Section 8 voucher program, public housing, and the Project Based Section 8 housing units, and other HUD programs.

HUD’s subsidized housing tenants have the power to stand up against the convicted felon President Donald J. Trump, and HUD Secretary Scott Turner, to save their housing before it is gone, and they end up on the cold hearted streets of America, unhoused, and homeless. If they wait until HUD’s low-income housing subsidies are destroyed and taken away from them and their landlord, then it is too late. That’s right. It will be too late.

A few recent headlines below may help to shed some light on the catastrophic horrific situation happening with HUD, and its subsidized housing programs.

-ProPublica,Trump’s Pick to Lead Federal Housing Agency Has Opposed Efforts to Aid the Poor.

-Globest, Leaked HUD Documents Outline Time Limits and Work Requirements for Tenants.

-Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,Rental Assistance Time Limits Would Place More Than 3 Million People — Half of Them Children — at Risk of Eviction and Homelessness.

-NonDoc Media, With HUD silent on shortfall funding, Tulsa Housing Authority fears ‘mass eviction event’.

-thenyhc.org,Trump’s Budget Would Destabilize Housing Market Causing Evictions & Multifamily Defaults.

-Truthout, Trump Administration Threatens Housing for Millions in “War on the Poor”.

-Fingerlakes1.com, Trump housing cuts could evict 300K from Section 8 and public housing.

-Mother Jones,Eviction Fears, Disability Discrimination, and Trump’s War on Fair Housing.

-Nation of Change,Trump plan accelerates assault on Section 8 and pushes millions toward eviction.

-The Intercept,Trump Admin Prepares to Kick Mixed Immigration Status Families Out of Public Housing.

-Black Enterprise,Lives In Limbo: 60,000 Households Face Eviction As Housing Voucher Program Falters.

-Bucks County Beacon,Trump’s War on DEI Is Decimating HUD’s Homelessness Response Infrastructure While Evicting Key Personnel from Their Positions.

-Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,Expanding HUD’s “Moving to Work” Authority Would Harm People Struggling to Afford Housing and Pave Way for Deep Cuts.

-The Washington Post,Overcharged, then evicted: How errors push out public housing residents.

-The Intercept, Trump the Landlord Plans to Speed Up Evictions From Public Housing.

-New American Economy, HUD Proposes to Evict Citizens and Immigrants from Public Housing if They Have Undocumented Family Members.

-Shelterforce, HUD’s Cooperation with ICE Stokes Fear in Immigrant Communities.

-ProPublica, Millions Could Lose Housing Aid Under Trump Plan.

-ProPublica, Trump Administration Prepares to Drop Seven Major Housing Discrimination Cases.

-ProPublica, How the Trump Administration Is Weakening the Enforcement of Fair Housing Laws.

-Fortune,Trump administration plans to cap rental aid at 2 years could expose 1.4 million poor households to eviction.

-The New York Times, Two HUD Civil Rights Lawyers Dismissed After Raising Concerns About Fair Housing Act Enforcement.

-Minnesota Reformer,HUD cancels funding for Twin Cities supportive housing developments.

-Chicago Sun-Times,Chicago Housing Authority sues HUD over new anti-DEI grant requirements.

-Orange County Register, Officials: 1,400 formerly homeless people in OC could lose housing if federal funding plan moves forward.

-Affordable Housing Finance,Budget Proposal Slashes HUD Programs.

-Urban Institute, Staffing and Funding Cuts at HUD Would Have an Outsize Effect on Older Adults.

-NPR, HUD will share data with Homeland Security to target immigrants without legal status.

-streetlightnews.org, HUD is considering closing most of its field offices alongside layoffs targeting half the agency’s workforce.

-Bloomberg Government News, HUD Retracted $1.7 Billion in Planned Contract Spending in FY25.

-NPR, The latest layoffs at HUD target fair housing investigators around the U.S..

-WDSU, HANO provides update on delayed Section 8 housing payments.

-National Mortgage Professional, HUD Slashes Staff Amid Government Shutdown.

-National Alliance to End Homelessness,Sweeping changes from HUD will leave 170,000+ people homeless.

-Planetizen,Two Weeks After Explosion, HUD Lays off Entire Building Inspection Staff.

-Street Sense Media, Organization sues HUD over grant restrictions.

-National Alliance to End Homelessness,How HUD’s Delays Will Impact Local and State Governments.

-Urban Institute, HUD’s Data Request for Immigration Status Threatens Federal Housing Assistance Nationwide.

-HousingWire,HUD layoffs hit 442 employees amid government shutdown.

-POLITICO Pro, Article | White House fires hundreds of HUD employees in latest staff reduction.

-National Association of REALTORS®,HUD Withdraws Fair Housing Guidance Documents.

-The New York Times, Trump Appointees Roll Back Enforcement of Fair Housing Laws.

-National Association of Counties, HUD’s Continuum-of-Care faces program changes and funding uncertainty.

-The Santa Barbara Independent, HUD Seeks to Ban Mixed-Status Households, Cut Funding for Emergency Housing Vouchers.

-The Nation, Federal Whistleblowers Sound an Alarm Over Civil Rights at HUD.

-ProPublica, Millions Could Lose Housing Aid Under Trump Plan.

-Bloomberg.com, HUD Issues Layoff Notices, Targeting Fair Housing Staff With Deep Cuts.

-Politico, Trump admin looks at deep cuts to homeless housing program.


The struggle for Just Cause eviction protections in Oakland, and renter’s rights.

In April of 2000, only 25 years ago, we held a rally in front of Oakland’s federal building in support of the elderly senior citizen Herman Walker, in a protest against HUD’s one strike policy.

At the time, Herman Walker was a tenant in one of Oakland’s public housing buildings, and Herman Walker was facing eviction because his caretaker allegedly got caught with a crack pipe on a property owned by the Oakland Housing Authority.

The war on drugs is being used to gain further leverage against the poor. The masterminds of this insidious policy to evict the innocent from public housing rental units have had their field day in the U.S. Supreme Court, and now have absolute power to terrorize low-income renters of subsidized rental housing with the threat of eviction. While sipping their champagne, the wealthy Land Barons of Wall Street plunder the worlds resources by any means necessary. Meanwhile, the low-income renters of Public Housing are under attack by extremists who insist that Congress has granted them unlimited power to evict the innocent, and make them homeless.

The tragic results of the full implementation of the one strike policy have been the creation of a police state like atmosphere for the residents of public housing who may be virtually under surveillance at all times. The overzealous governmental entities running amuck to evict innocent renters of public housing by misuse of the one strike policy have misinterpreted the intent of Congress's actions to create a framework of anti-drug legislation. The insidious aspects of the policy, results in elderly people being evicted because of who they know rather than what they may have done. Local attorney Bill Simpich believes that to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the one strike policy, Congress needs to rewrite the anti-drug law legislation in such a way that innocent victims in public housing may defend theirselves from those governmental entities who believe that they have the absolute power to evict the innocent.

HUD’s one strike policy to “evict the innocent” from their public housing was fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court by local attorneys Anne Omura of the Eviction Defense Center, Ira Jacobowitz, William Simpich, John Murcko, Matthew Siegel, Robert Salinas, Whitty Somvichian, Maureen Alger, Cooley Godward, James Donato, Paul Renee, and others.  

During the months of late 2000, thanks to the efforts of the brilliant attorney Andrew Wolff who used to be a Commissioner on the rent board, just cause eviction protections were passed on two separate occasions by the “rent board.” However, the just cause eviction protections that were passed by the “rent board” were not passed into law by the Oakland City Council.

It was during November of 2000 that the just cause eviction protections were passed for the second time by the “rent board” due to the efforts of then Commissioner Andrew Wolf. This very much angered some members of the Oakland City Council, Mayor Jerry Brown, and Oakland’s landlords.

Eventually, in retaliation Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown wrongfully fired Commissioner Andrew Wolff from the rent board before his term expired. Documents revealed later from a former Councilman Dick Spees Task Force, they implied that the Oakland landlord lobby pressured the mayor's office into dismissing Wolf from the “rent board”, and that the intent of their focus (Dick Spees Task Force) was to “fix the rent board’’ with new board members more to their liking. In an Oakland Tribune, August 2, 2001 opinion piece by landlord supporter Greg McConnell, he tried to destroy the just cause eviction protection movement as he falsely claimed that just cause eviction protections were not needed, and the opinion piece may be found further below.

It should be noted that the landlords and the city were so fearful of Commissioner Wolff that the “rent board” was shut down on July 26, 2001, when former Commissioner Wolff refused to accept a July 24, 2001 faxed dismissal letter from Jerry Brown as being legal, and he tried to take his seat at the “rent board” that evening. As a result of Wolff's challenge to Jerry Brown it resulted in the city shutting down the rent board until Thursday August 23, 2001.

A protest and rally in support of Commissioner Wolff took place at the Oakland City Hall for the scheduled re-opening of the rent board that occurred on Thursday, August 23, 2001 at 6:30 P.M.

Mayor Jerry Brown replaced former Commissioner Wolf with a fellow named Ahmad Mansur on the rent board.

In response to his wrongful dismissal from the rent board, former Commissioner Andrew Wolff filed a law suit against Jerry Brown and the City of Oakland (Case No: 2001-20532d).

Case No: 2001-20532d, the suit against Jerry Brown, sought to over-turn the wrongful dismissal of former Commissioner Wolff from the rent board, and to return his full rights and privileges as a member of the board. Defendants listed on the summons/law suit were Jerry Brown, Rebecca Eisen, Kathryn Kasch, the City of Oakland, and the Oakland Housing Residential Rent and Relocation Board. The defendants had 30 Days after being served the summons to file a written response to the court.

Attorney Andrew Wolff was not allowed to return to the rent board but continues to be a staunch defender of tenant rights and defends many tenants with his law practice in Oakland.

As written in Andrew Wolf’s website, “For three years, Mr. Wolff served as a City Commissioner on the Oakland Rent Stabilization Board as a tenant representative appointed by then Mayor Elihu Harris. He is currently a member of the Consumer Attorneys of California, East Bay Tenant Bar Association, Alameda County Bar Association, and former Board Member of Housing Rights, Inc. Andrew Wolff is also one of three founding members of the Just Cause Eviction Protection Initiative, a grass-roots movement that started as an adjunct committee of the Oakland Tenants’ Union culminating into the Just Cause Eviction Ordinance protecting thousands of tenants in the City of Oakland. Mr. Wolff spent 3 years of his life involved in community organizing, attending City council meetings, and building a coalition to get the Just Cause Initiative on the Ballot, and he worked tirelessly to get the Initiative passed into law.”

During 2002, there was huge feud among tenant activists over the 3% rent cap in Oakland. Some activists wanted to keep it, and others wanted to get rid of it.

Also, in Oakland during 2002, we struggled to get Measure EE, Just Cause Eviction protections passed by the voters, and many years later it is still protecting the renters in Oakland.

Save Section 8 housing voucher program a.k.a. Housing Choice Voucher Program:

We held several Save Section 8 rallies in Alameda, during 2004, to Save the Section 8 program, and Section 8 tenants.

That’s right There was a hug struggle taking place in Alameda over the Section voucher housing program. In early June, Alameda had around 1,625 families in their Section 8 program, but by July 9, only 1,502 were left, after 108 vouchers were terminated due to the funding shortfalls and numerous families voluntarily walked away from the program. At least 108 families in Alameda lost their vouchers because they accepted money to pay their rents for the month of July from a program that does not allow its funds to be used by families in the Section 8 program. What a mess.

In between some Section 8 protests back then, during 2004 after I was interviewed by the mighty 60,000 watts of power on KPFA radio in Berkeley, I was invited by some union activists to be a guest speaker to help promote the Million Worker March down in Anaheim, in walking distance of Disney Land. For what it’s worth, every time I was in studio at KPFA radio talking about housing issues, I was incredibly nervous, but at the same time it was exhilarating to know that I was getting my message out all over Northern California. I couldn’t stop from thinking about all the famous butts that sat on the same seat I sat on while I was in studio, before I got there, as crazy as that may sound… What a world.

I also enjoyed being interviewed by Pacifica on KALX radio station in Berkeley a while back, and I liked her so much, I shared a bunch of music of mine from many parts of the world that I collected, and enjoy listening to. She put together a great hour Dunya radio show out of some of the music that I gave her that aired on KALX that I like to listen to at times.

I grew up in a world loving music, guitars, and films for some reason, and still do when I have a moment to kick back, and relax during these grim times we find ourselves in.

Additionally, in 2004, it was the tenth anniversary of the Eviction Defense Center in Oakland, that has defended thousands of renters from eviction, and run by the beautiful Anne Tamiko Omura for almost 22 years.

Years ago back in April 2005, HUD’s Section 8 tenants in Marin County, organized 2 events to save their Section 8 housing. One rally/event was organized and held in a building in San Rafael, and the other event was held in Mill Valley, at the Redwoods Retirement Center.

At that time, Marion Brady and myself (Lynda Carson) organized both events, with assistance from the Marin Housing Authority, Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, and others.

We held both events in Marin County, and beforehand, Marion and I put together information packets for all the people that showed up, telling them what to do to save their housing. We talked on the phone for hours to figure out what to put in the information packets. To our surprise, it seemed like around 200 to 300 people or more showed up for both events, and we took turns firing up the crowd telling them what to do to save their housing. It took Marian and I a while to figure out what to tell everybody in the information packets because she was in a lot of pain, and taking medication for it at the time. But eventually we figured it out and got it typed up, and made a lot of copies for everyone. We spent our own money to make this happen, and we both were very poor at the time.

According to a write up about one of our Save Section 8 events in the SF Gate, it said, “Woolsey to keynote rally for Section 8 housing program.” “’The group Save Section 8 of Marin is holding a rally opposing recently proposed federal budget cuts that will affect those who need assistance most: local housing programs and the services they provide to extremely low-income working families with children; fixed-income people with disabilities; and senior residents. Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, will be the keynote speaker at the rally. She will be joined by Supervisor Charles McGlashan; Stephen Willard, program manager for Section 8, Marin Housing Authority; the Rev. Carol Hovis, executive director of Marin Interfaith Council; and activist Lynda Carson. Marion Brady, coordinator for Save Section 8 of Marin and herself a voucher-holder on disability, will bring her message to residents to "get mad and get organized. - The free rally is at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Redwoods Retirement Center, 40 Camino Alto in Mill Valley.”

The other Section 8 rally to Save Section 8, was held in San Rafael around a week or so before the Save Section 8 event in Mill Valley. This was around 20 years ago, and at the time Marion and I had a secret then that we did not dare to tell people about at the time. Our secret was that the Housing Authority of Marin was kind enough to send a notice out to all of their Section 8 voucher holders in Marin County, telling them about the Save Section 8 event’s that Marion and I were organizing, including the locations for the events, and the date and time. They were even cool enough to use their own stamps on the invitations to the Section 8 tenants, saving Marion and I a lot of work and money back then. To our surprise when it was ‘Show Time,” hundreds of people showed up at both of our events.

Shelterforce wrote an article about one of our Save Section 8 event/s in Marin County, and interviewed Marion Brady for their story. In part it says, “In April 2004, when the Bush Administration launched a major assault on the program that helps Marion Brady pay her rent, she sprang into action. Though she suffers from a debilitating illness, it did not keep her from organizing 70 hours a week that spring to protect herself and others who rely on Section 8 vouchers to stay in their homes.

“When I found out my Section 8 was threatened, I panicked,” says the Marin County, California resident. “I’d never [organized] before, although I’d gone to demonstrations. I could never even ask a question in a group, I was so shy. But I hate injustice, and all of a sudden I found myself totally overwhelmed with it.”

Section 8, also called the Housing Choice Voucher program, enables some 2 million individuals, seniors, families with children and disabled people to rent apartments. Though the program has often been at risk of cutbacks since its creation in 1983, people who had obtained vouchers and used them to find homes were never told they would lose them for this reason. They would leave the program only if their income rose or they were unable to use their vouchers to find units within a set period of time. But then in 2004 HUD changed the program’s funding formula, shortchanging housing authorities across the country and forcing them to reduce their contribution to tenants’ rents. While housing authorities are locally controlled and always had the option of making cuts to cover their costs, last year marked the first in which many of these agencies took that step to make up for a loss of federal funds. In some cities, tenants who paid 30 percent of their income for rent when they first got vouchers have seen that percentage double. At the same time, HUD promoted legislation that would end its targeting to very low-income people. In response, voucher holders have hit the streets to protest.

Brady formed Save Section 8 of Marin and began looking for support around the county. In that first month after HUD proposed changing the program’s funding formula, she helped organize a rally that attracted nearly 300 people. This was no small feat in a mostly wealthy, suburban county where tenants are isolated from each other.

Tenants and advocates across the country have been energized by the threats to the voucher program. Their main strategy has been to demonstrate, use the media and contact members of Congress to build opposition to HUD’s proposals. In some places, organizers and advocates have also taken a local approach, pressuring landlords and urging housing authorities and political leaders to set aside funds to replace or supplement Section 8 vouchers.”

I did apiece about the housing crisis of 2005, called “War on the Poor.” A Years Review Of The Nation's Housing & Poverty Crisis In America: by Lynda Carson - The year of 2005 was a wicked year for the poor and impoverished across the nation, and there is no relief in sight. Hundreds of thousands have been made homeless from evictions, disasters, and mean-spirited budget bills that take resources from the poor, to give to the rich. Let 2005 be a reminder that the Bush administration hates poor people and must be removed from power as soon as possible.”

And I did another piece in 2005 called, “GOP Agenda Shreds Disabled Housing.”

In 2007, we struggled to save the Section 8 voucher program in Berkeley, and to save the Section 8 housing vouchers for the tenants.

During 2010, the Assault on Oakland's Homeless Population Continues.

In a Feb. 25, 2011 ruling, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Section 8 project-based tenants are allowed to remain in their rental units at the Park Village Apartments in Oakland at 3761 Park BLVD Way, as long as they keep paying their current share of rent.

It was in 2015, that Congresswoman Maxine Waters called for more public housing protections.

Additionally, it was in 2015, that BIG MONEY stole Richmond’s renter protections, and allegedly lied while doing it.

In 2016, Richmond activists kicked off its renter protection gathering campaign.

Indeed, in 2018, Public housing and Section 8 Tenants Face Eviction and Homelessness for Medical Marijuana Use, even though pot is legal in California.

Like I said earlier. I really believe that people desperately need to get together and get organized to save HUD’s subsidized housing programs for the present, and future generations of people who may need access to some of their wonderful programs.

Lynda Carson may be reached at newzland2 [at] gmail.com.

P.S. That's me and Marion Brady in San Rafael for a Section 8 tenants meeting that we organized to fight back against funding cuts to HUD's subsidized housing programs during 2005.

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