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Speak Up Against HUD’s Attempt to Dismantle the Equal Access Rule

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Trump’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has proposed a rule change that would remove protections for people to access HUD-funded shelter, housing and services that best fit their gender identity. Tearing down the “Equal Access Rule” would make those resources contingent on matching biological sex, and it would allow service providers to demand proof of someone’s biological sex in order to access services. That would further marginalize trans, intersex, and nonbinary people who are already at high risk of homelessness and dangerous situations while they are homeless. Speak up today against this terrible rule change! Write your comment before June 29, 2026 using the template below. HUD is legally required to review all comments and respond to them in their final rule. We have successfully stalled out other terrible rule changes before by submitting an overwhelming number of comments – let’s do it again! Sample comment – please customize it if you have time: I strongly oppose the proposed changes to the Equal Access Rule issued by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This proposal would remove critical protections that ensure fair and equal access to housing and services for transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people. By stopping people from choosing services that align with their gender identity, forcing them into programs and services that do not meet their needs, and allowing providers to require proof of a person’s biological sex, this rule opens the door to discrimination, denial of services, and dangerous conditions for people seeking HUD-funded shelter, housing, and services. According to data from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, transgender people are more likely to be unsheltered than their cisgender peers, and those who are unsheltered have worse health and experience more dangerous conditions than those who are sheltered. More data is available …

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Speak Up: It’s HUD’s Job to House People

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Recent rulings in two lawsuits against the  U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have provided short-term protections for the Continuum of Care (CoC) program and permanent supportive housing that thousands of King County residents rely on to stay housed and safe. Let’s celebrate these victories AND let’s speak up together to fight ongoing threats to essential federal programs. Recently, HUD proposed three dangerous rules that would force many people who live in federally subsidized housing into homelessness. None of these changes are final yet, and we still have an opportunity to prevent them. Submitting a flood of comments has worked in the past to successfully stall or stop harmful rules.  Federal rulemaking is a unique process. HUD is legally required to review all comments and respond to important issues in their final rule. So, it’s important we all submit comments to accumulate as many as possible. You can always submit anonymously if you prefer, so your information won’t be part of the public record. Once you’ve left your comments, please share this opportunity to take action with others. Together we can protect people who rely on federally-funded housing! Time limits & work requirements for public housing put millions at risk of homelessness HUD proposed a rule that, if passed, would allow public housing authorities and owners of certain HUD-assisted properties to enforce work requirements for work-eligible* people, mandating them to work up to 40 hours per week or lose their housing. This rule would also implement an unprecedented two-year time limit on assistance that could result in an estimated 3.3 million people losing their rental assistance, including 1.7 million children.  📢 Leave a comment in opposition to the Time Limit & Work Requirement Rule before Friday, May 1, 2026 Example comment (adapted from the National Low Income Housing Coalition) Everyone needs to live in a safe, stable, affordable home. Federal rental assistance programs help more than …

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Access to services during the 2026 FIFA World Cup

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This page was last updated Weds, March 18, 2026. We will update this page as we receive additional information and resources. The 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament—occurring Thursday, June 11 through Sunday, July 19—is the largest event ever to occur in Seattle. Hundreds of thousands of people will visit Seattle from all over the world and are expected to stay an average of 7.5 days each. Our entire city will see the impact on our roads and in our neighborhoods, but the most impacted neighborhoods are the ones immediately surrounding Lumen Field, i.e. the “stadium neighborhood”: Pioneer Square, the Chinatown/International District, and SoDo. Many people access services, healthcare, housing, and shelter in these neighborhoods. Your Coalition has been working with the local organizing committee—SeattleFWC26—to get good information to housing, service, shelter, and healthcare providers in the most impacted neighborhoods. If your organization is not currently involved in these information sessions and your services are in Pioneer Square, the CID, or SoDo, please contact Kevin Lee at kevin[at]homelessinfo[.]org. The information in this post is useful for us all to be aware of and is specifically important for frontline staff and the people who sleep or access services in Pioneer Square, the CID, and SoDo. Match Days There are a total of six match days: *Note: Since this game was announced, Iran has pulled out of the competition. We do not yet know if this match will still take place with a different team or who that team will be. Each match has the capacity for roughly 63,000 attendees at Lumen Field. The match on Juneteenth between U.S. and Australia will likely see the biggest crowd, but the Local Organizing Committee expects every match to sell out. Some matches are not yet set—who will play will depend on the tournament outcomes, but …

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Resources to prepare for federal immigration enforcement agents

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This page was last updated Weds, March 18, 2026. We will update this page as we receive additional information and resources. If you have resources you believe should be included here, please email us at contact[at]homelessinfo[dot]org. Find an upcoming virtual training hosted by the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN) here. Trainings offered in both English and Spanish: Know Your Rights! Family Safety Planning Legal Counsel for Children and Youth (LCYC) offers the opportunity to consult with families as they develop Family Safety Plans, with resources in multiple languages. Eastside Legal Assistance Program (ELAP) has compiled good information as well. For Service and Housing Providers Take these basic steps to prepare for federal immigration enforcement agents at your service or housing site: In partnership with the King County Regional Housing Authority and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP), we hosted a training to prepare service providers in April 2025. While information about the most effective protections changes rapidly, this training reviews key information and includes links to more resources. This training is for educational purposes ONLY. The information provided is not individualized legal advice. Individuals with immigration questions should seek the advice and counsel of an experienced immigration attorney.  Take Action to Keep Families Housed The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposed a new rule that would strip federal housing assistance from entire families when a single family member cannot provetheir U.S. citizenship or eligibility. This jeopardizes housing for 80,000 people nationwide including 37,000 children. One in four children—who are U.S. citizens—have a least one immigrant parent. HUD’s proposed rule would force families to separate or stay together and become homeless. Learn more from the Protecting Immigrant Families Coalition. TAKE ACTION TODAY HUD is accepting comments on this proposed rule until Tuesday, April 21, 2026. Submit a comment in opposition here. Find templates for your comments …

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Social Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) training – October 28, 2025

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This training on SSI and SSDI helps to demystify public benefits, particularly those resourced by individuals and families with housing barriers. This training covers eligibility, how to apply, how to maintain benefits, and how to resolve common issues with obtaining or maintaining benefits.   An uptick in applications that are connected to changing requirements from other benefits programs is expected. There are possible short-term impacts during the current government shutdown and some longer-term impacts that are connected to changes in eligibility. Thank you to Benefits Law Center for sharing this information with us. Benefits Law Center makes direct legal representation accessible at the convenience of the client and assists in the benefits application and appeals process in a way that accommodates their disability and other barriers that they may face. Types of Benefits There are a couple of different types of benefits that a person can receive. A person can get benefits based on having a disability, which means they have health conditions that are so severe that they wouldn’t allow you to do any kind of full-time job. SSI – Social Security Income To get benefits based on disability for SSI, the only requirements are that you meet the disability, age, or blindness requirements and you meet the income and resource limits, meaning that you’re not making too much money, and you don’t have too much money or assets. SSDI – Social Security Disability Income SSDI has the same disability verification requirements but it has different financial requirements. You have to have worked enough hours or enough work credits at a job where you’re paying taxes into the Social Security system to qualify for this benefit. Disabled Adult Child Benefits Disabled adult child benefits are for people who became too disabled to work before age 22 and their parent …

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General Membership Meeting – September 18, 2025

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During our September General Membership Meeting, we were joined by two King County programs that recently expanded capacities: the Public Health Street Medicine Team and the Youth Mobile Crisis Team. We also heard some announcements from our members, took a moment to recognize the role of advocacy in today’s world, and shared some Coalition upcoming events. If this wealth of information is something you want to share with others or access again, please subscribe to the Coalition’s YouTube channel, where our membership meetings and trainings are collected. Upcoming at the Coalition We are preparing our community for the November 5 election. Our team of trained, nonpartisan Voting Rights Volunteers are visiting our member organizations this month and next for voter education and registration. If you’re interested in having our team visit your program or site, please reach out to Kevin Lee at kevin[at]homelessinfo[.]org. There are two candidate forums coming up that you should attend as a voter who cares about housing and homelessness issues. These forums are opportunities for voters to learn about candidates and, specifically, hear their positions on human service issues. Candidate forums are also a space to educate candidates on what their constituents care about and what their communities need. “Lots of times, people feel disconnected from elections and from candidates because they don’t think that their issues are being addressed,” said Alison Eisinger, Coalition Executive Director. “This is part of how we change that. And it’s also part of how we educate the candidates.” These forums are an opportunity to show candidates packed houses of voters who passionately care about housing, homelessness, and human services. Please join us: Learn how to be an effective advocate for housing justice right in time for budget season! Our county and city budgets determine what resources are allocated to support …

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General Membership Meeting – April 17, 2025

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During our April General Membership Meeting, we said a hello and a goodbye, heard how the Sexual Violence Law Center can help people experiencing housing instability, learned about recent updates to Social Security Income overpayment practices, and reviewed where we’re at with the state legislative session, which ended on Monday, April 28. If this wealth of information is something you want to share with others or access again, please subscribe to the Coalition’s YouTube channel, where our membership meetings and trainings are collected. Goodbye Jody and Hello Kevin The Coalition has benefited for the last four years from having the lovely and talented Jody Rauch as a core member of our staff. Jody is taking a year off and is leaving the Coalition team in May 2025. We are profoundly grateful for the passion, intelligence, community connections, and joy that she has brought to us, her colleagues, to this Coalition as an organization, and to this community. We share sincere appreciation for Jody, who helped us build the infrastructure that allows us to do the work that we do in partnership with the whole community. We are collecting notes of appreciation for Jody here, please feel welcome to add your own. The sweet part of this bittersweet goodbye is the opportunity to welcome a new staff member, Kevin Lee, to the Coalition in the role of Senior Program Manager. Kevin comes to the Coalition from working with our partner organization at the state level, the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence. They also have a wide range of other experience in direct service and crisis support, from working as an advocate and legal advocate for domestic violence survivors to working in the public benefit systems as a social worker for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and WorkFirst benefit programs. Please …

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What to do if ICE or Other Federal Agents Come to your Service Site – Know Your Rights Training – April 8, 2025

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Thank you to the King County Regional Homelessness Authority for partnering with us to bring this training to our community. Thank you to Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP) for a presenting a rich training with regionally pertinent information.  This training is for educational purposes ONLY. The information provided is not individualized legal advice. Individuals with immigration questions should seek the advice and counsel of an experienced immigration attorney.  Information and updates are occurring rapidly under this administration! The information provided in this training is only guaranteed to be up to date through April 8, 2025. To stay updated on immigration law, please go to the Immigration Policy Tracking Project and join the NWIRP mailing list. Take Collective Action to Help Immigrant Families For 25 years, immigrants with “green cards” and other lawful immigration statuses have been denied access to federal health care, nutrition, housing, and other programs for their first five years in the United States, despite paying federal taxes during that period.  That’s because ​​in 1996, Congress passed restrictive welfare and immigration legislation that created unnecessary barriers, including an arbitrary five-year waiting-period—often referred to as “the five-year bar.”Now, Congress has the opportunity to fix this injustice and restore access to public benefits by passing the LIFT the BAR Act. The LIFT the BAR Act restores access to public programs like Medicaid, CHIP, and SNAP, by removing the five-year bar and other barriers that deny critical care and aid to people who are lawfully present and their families. The legislation ensures that immigrants have access to services based on the income and resources that are actually available to them. And it ensures that anti-immigrant politicians cannot undermine the basic protections extended by federal safety net programs, while restoring state and local flexibility to provide benefits to immigrants with their own funds. Take action now: https://pifcoalition.org/priority/tell-congress-to-lift-the-bar Know Your Rights and …

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