“When we allow those in power to dismantle our institutions based on a false assumption that government workers are lazy, the American public has, and will continue, to be hurt.”

Dear America,

I have worked at HUD for many years. I, like many of my colleagues, see our work as public servants as a way to serve our country. Yet we are often accused of being lazy and uncaring, of taking too long to do our jobs, or of actively taking steps to defraud the Department or the American public. Nothing could be further from the truth.

If there is one thing that I can confidently say about everyone who works at HUD, it is that we came to HUD because we believe that every person deserves safe, affordable, accessible, and dignified housing. And we continue to do our work because we get a great deal of personal, moral, and professional satisfaction out of fulfilling that mission every day. I could fill many pages listing the indignities to which HUD employees have been subjected but that is not the point. The point is that up until 2025, HUD employees kept coming to work to ensure the job got done because we all were dedicated to preventing the indignities to which Americans are subject every day: homelessness, unaffordable rents, discrimination, and unsafe living conditions.

In 2025 the Trump administration made it impossible for HUD employees to continue to do our jobs. DOGE fired scores of employees and scared many others into accepting early retirements and resignations. Employees were forbidden from communicating with anyone outside of HUD or even between offices within HUD. When HUD employees cannot do our jobs, housing does not get inspected for containing lead paint, people cannot pay their rent with their housing vouchers, first-time homebuyers can't access mortgage insurance, tenants have nowhere to turn when they are denied housing because of their race, communities struck by natural disaster can't access emergency funds, and the list goes on.

Trump administration officials are still working to dismantle HUD, except now so many of those dedicated HUD employees have been fired or forced out. The people who the Trump administration have selected to run HUD do not believe in the mission to ensure Americans have safe, affordable, accessible, and dignified housing. They believe in perpetuating the dangerous myth that HUD employees are lazy, inefficient, and do not care. Months later, I still think about the people impacted by the work I was forced to abandon.

When we allow those in power to dismantle our institutions based on a false assumption that government workers are lazy, the American public has, and will continue, to be hurt.

Signed,

A tired HUD employee