Trump Administration Pushes Rule to Fast-Track Evictions, Cut Tenant Notice Time

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President Donald Trump is preparing to revoke eviction protections for people living in federal public housing and project-based rental assistance programs — increasing the risk for millions of Americans to fall into homelessness.

Last week, the Trump administration posted on the Office of Management and Budget’s website that it is reviewing a new rule eliminating a Housing and Urban Development Department requirement that property owners and public housing agencies provide a 30-day eviction notice for people they intend to kick out of certain types of federally subsidized housing for lack of payment.

If the rule change takes effect, public housing tenants could receive as little as 14 days of notice prior to eviction proceedings beginning, and in some jurisdictions, people in project-based rental assistance programs could receive no notice at all before formal eviction procedures begin.

The 30-day notice rule was drafted during the Biden administration to give tenants facing eviction for nonpayment time to pay the amount due to stop the eviction or secure new housing. It requires property owners and public housing authorities to give tenants a month’s notice in writing, and mandates that property managers include a monthly breakdown of overdue rent charges, the deadline for paying overdue rent, and instructions on how the tenant can pay their fees.

The 30-day notice rule only took effect in January, but housing experts say that it has already made a significant difference for people facing eviction. Experts told that should the Trump administration move ahead with the rule change, millions of people could be at risk of losing their housing to benefit Trump’s corporate allies.

“It would be really a huge step backwards to see this protection be taken away at a time like this when people are really concerned about the ability to make rent and the ability to stay married,” said Marie Claire Tran-Leung, the Evictions Initiative Project Director and a senior staff attorney at the National Housing Law Project.

Some 2 million people live in project-based rental assistance housing, and an additional 1.6 million in public housing. Some housing assistance programs, such as the Housing Choice Voucher programs, were excluded from the 30-day notice, Tran-Leung said.

The 30-day notice period significantly decreased evictions, said Tara Raghuveer, founding director of the Tenant Union Federation. “For many households, that notice initiates a process of figuring out how they’re going to make rent, so that the eviction doesn’t happen,” she said. “Many of the households impacted, disproportionately, these households are made up of single parents and children. And this will have devastating consequences.”