HUD’s staffing cuts hurt certain housing services, watchdog finds

Grantees, property managers and national housing organizations reported to government auditors that it has become more difficult to work with the Housing and Urban Development Department following last year’s staff cuts, according to a watchdog report that was publicly released on Wednesday. 

The Government Accountability Office found that HUD’s workforce decreased by about 29% between December 2024 and 2025, going down to roughly 6,300 workers. Most staffers left under the deferred resignation program, and 41% of the departing employees had more than 20 years of department service. 

Based on interviews with representatives from 20 housing stakeholder organizations, auditors determined that last year’s downsizing made it harder for these groups to get information from HUD. 

For example: 

• All Fair Housing Initiatives Program grantees and agencies that GAO interviewed reported that they were either unsure who their HUD grant administrator was or had less communication with a newly assigned official. 
• One organization shared that “questions that previously received same-day responses could take up to 30 days.”
• A public housing agency said that it could not access the department’s grant and subsidy disbursement system for three months because “it took time to find a HUD employee with the proper administrative rights to the system to grant [the agency’s] new executive director access to the system. During that period, the PHA used reserve funds to cover salaries, utilities and other operating costs but was unable to pay some contractors.”

GAO noted that HUD has announced several proposals to improve efficiency, including updating IT systems, creating a unified grants system and launching a service delivery improvement initiative. But auditors said that the department did not respond to their request to discuss the status of these programs. 

“These initiatives may help HUD modernize and improve the delivery of its programs and services,” they wrote. “However, it is too soon to assess their effectiveness or the extent to which they will help HUD achieve its mission.” 

HUD did not respond to a request for comment. 

In the spring, the department began moving the majority of its headquarters workforce from a building in Washington, D.C., to a new location in Alexandria, Va. The Trump administration has argued that the relocation will save money and provide HUD workers with a better office building.

The District of Columbia in July filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the move, pointing to the lack of congressional approval and a statutory requirement that HUD be established in the “seat of government.” The filing said that more than 80% of headquarters employees have been reassigned to the Alexandria office.