HUD is bracing as DOGE seeks to cut waste, fraud. Union leaders have a suggestion

The Trump administration is asking employees at the Department of Housing and Urban Development to justify hundreds of contracts across the agency. One email sent Monday afternoon included a spreadsheet to fill out asking whether a contract was “critical,” whether it had a DEI component and if the contractor was competent.

The email also asked for a name on each form, a “contract champion within the bureau who will personally vouch for the answers.” It was sent by Scott Langmack, senior adviser to Government Efficiency, and said it was “urgent” that answers be sent by end of day Tuesday, Feb. 11.

The request has added to worries among workers that HUD might be the next target for major downsizing by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a unit in the Trump administration led by Elon Musk.

During his first term, President Trump repeatedly proposed dramatic cuts to HUD’s budget, though they did not pass Congress. The conservative policy agenda Project 2025 calls for reigning in HUD’s “bureaucratic overreach” and transferring its functions to other agencies, states and localities.

The agency manages rental assistance for millions, provides funding to house homeless people, helps lower-income families buy homes, and builds and repairs affordable housing.

HUD contracts include services such as property management, inspections and appraisals on housing it oversees, credit analysis for its mortgage insurance arm, and research on how its programs perform and ways to improve them.

One department staffer also said future funding grants are now effectively on pause, and that permission is needed to move ahead with anything. “It’s impossible to plan in this totally chaotic environment,” this person said.

Another worker said the idea that entire parts of HUD might be wound down was “devastating.” A third said leadership was reminding people that the agency’s work is important and bipartisan, but the erosion of support for government aid has been demoralizing.

All three employees asked that their names not be used because they feared for their jobs.

Two HUD union leaders with the American Federation of Government Employees expressed similar concerns. But mixed with that was also hope that DOGE scrutiny could lead to much-needed change in the agency.

“If we really want to get to the bulk of fraud, waste and abuse, let’s take a close look at a federal procurement system, because this has been broken for years,” said Antonio Gaines, president of AFGE National Council 222.

HUD’s union has been alleging fraud, waste and abuse since last year

Gaines knows the stereotype that federal workers are lazy and said front-line employees take the blame for a slow bureaucracy. But often, he said, they are hamstrung by decisions made higher up.

One such decision, he said, was implementing a new tool for inspecting public housing that has been disastrously slow and clunky to use. “The app is woefully dysfunctional, but we spent $40 million on it already,” Gaines said.

Last year, AFGE Council 222 filed a complaint with HUD’s Inspector General and members of Congress. It said the app made it impossible for HUD to inspect nearly all of its five million housing units across the country every five years, as required by law.

There hasn’t been much response so far. But Gaines hopes that will change now that DOGE has asked for a review of all contracts.

“This is something that really will shed light on the lack of oversight.” said Erik Jetmir, the legislative and political chair for Council 222.

On the other hand, both officials said, it’s too early to know which way things will go. The Trump administration “can just as easily take a look at the contracts and replace them with loyalists and cronies,” Jetmir said.

Gaines was surprised that Trump and Musk, who “consider themselves to be elite business people,” had not made a business case for dramatic downsizing. “They’re making a political case for it, and I think that’s very dangerous,” he said.

HUD staff feel stressed and left in the dark

Several HUD employees said they’ve been given almost no information on what changes to expect. One called the situation a “nightmare.” A union survey this month found 80% of respondents reported very high stress levels.

Gaines said the Trump administration’s repeated digs at federal employees — like saying public sector jobs are “lower productivity” — are offensive. And the offer to pay people for months to sit home and do nothing? “It seems to me that is the epitome of fraud, waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars,” he said.

Several people expressed a visceral fear of getting fired. There is also worry about how many people might choose to retire or leave if the Trump administration’s offer is upheld in court. One source was concerned that losing many people in the same department could make it tough to “carry out our mission.”