DOGE Cites ‘DEI,’ LinkedIn Profiles It Doesn’t Like In Killing Off HUD Contracts

DOGE is moving to cancel all awards for some Housing and Urban Development contractors, citing “DEI”-related work and other factors that are separate from the substance of the contracts being cancelled.

An internal HUD email reviewed by TPM said that DOGE was moving to cancel “all awards” for eight contractors after a “DOGE review of their websites and LinkedIn profiles.”

It’s a stunning and candid admission of what DOGE is doing at HUD: taking contracts away from organizations not because of the quality or substance of their work, but because of unrelated political issues. In this case, the email cited President Trump’s anti-“DEI” executive order as a reason to end the contracts — not because the awards themselves were in violation of the order, but because the organizations presented themselves and their work in a way that ran afoul of the administration’s preferences.

The contracts affected by the DOGE decision all cover awards for technical assistance, programs that help housing organizations across the country spend HUD grants effectively and work to build affordable housing or help people to find housing.

Kevin Martone, executive director of contractor Technical Assistance Collaborative, Inc., told TPM that HUD told him the awards were being cancelled because “operations and performance in connection with the subject awards is not in compliance with” the “DEI” executive order.

When TPM asked if the substance of the HUD awards to Technical Assistance Collaborative had any relation to DEI initiatives, Martone replied: “None whatsoever.”

HUD did not immediately return TPM’s request for comment.

The cuts come as the Trump administration escalates the use of government action for explicitly partisan, often retributive, ends. On Tuesday, it revoked the security clearances for attorneys at law firm Covington & Burling over the firm’s representation of former Special Counsel Jack Smith.

In this case, the act seems aimed at throwing the Trump administration’s weight around. It sends a message that if contractors want to conduct business with the federal government, they cannot engage in anything that DOGE deems “DEI,” even in areas totally unrelated to the work they perform as part of federal contracts.

Many of the eight targeted contractors featured language around diversity initiatives on their websites and LinkedIn profiles. Some touted the same kind of standard DEI principles that exist across the corporate and non-profit worlds. It’s not clear if that’s the kind of anodyne commitment that DOGE took as a reason to end work with the contractors.

Martone told TPM that HUD had initially cut contracts for his organization that dealt more explicitly with DEI initiatives in the week after the Trump “DEI” executive order was issued. After that, he said, HUD officials told him that other contracts would proceed so long as DEI-related work stopped. But HUD’s move this week caught him completely off guard.

“None of it was related to or specific to DEI,” he said. “We complied with those requirements by HUD for all intents and purposes. So in our mind when we look at that, we weren’t in non-compliance with the order or anything.”

Martone said that around 50 percent of his company’s work was funded by HUD grants, and that he plans to appeal the rescissions.

Shaun Donovan, a former HUD Secretary who now runs Enterprise Community Partners, another affected contractor, said in a statement to TPM that his organization would also fight to keep the funding in place.

Donovan said that the programs support housing construction and maintenance, and help funnel money into homes for the elderly, and health care and childcare facilities.

“Make no mistake: Today’s decision will raise costs for families, hobble the creation of affordable homes, forfeit local jobs, and sap opportunity from thousands of communities in all 50 states,” Donovan added.

Rev. Rusty Bennett, the head of Collaborative Solutions, told TPM in a text message that he was informing staff of the cuts just as TPM contacted him for comment.

Other affected contractors, according to the HUD email reviewed by TPM, are Enterprise Community Partners, LISC, Cloudburst Consulting, Corporation for Supportive Housing, BCT Partners, and Homebase Center for Common Concerns.

In the message, the Office of Technical Assistance addressed employees by saying that the Trump administration had “cancelled all HUD funding,” including technical assistance awards for the eight contractors. The message ordered the contractors to “cease all substantive work” while giving them 90-120 days to wind down operations.