Feds drop probe into Hempstead Town public housing discrimination

The federal government has taken back its sweeping determination that the Town of Hempstead Housing Authority used an illegal point system to discriminate against persons with disabilities and people of color while also fostering racial segregation for at least a decade.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s withdrawal of its investigation’s findings, issued in 2024, came days after Newsday published a report that revealed the probe to the public for the first time.

In a letter to Edward Cumming, the town’s housing authority executive director, HUD officials said the agency would prioritize enforcement that addressed "alleged injuries by bona fide complainants" and cases "involving intentional unlawful discrimination."

HUD notified Hempstead Town's housing authority that it was withdrawing the investigation findings issued in 2024, writing it would instead prioritize enforcement that addressed "alleged injuries by bona fide complainants" and cases "involving intentional unlawful discrimination."

The withdrawal of the "Letter of Findings of Noncompliance" raises questions about impartial enforcement of fair housing regulations and civil rights law by the Trump administration’s housing agency, housing experts said.

"It’s shocking," said Jacy Gaige, who was director of enforcement in HUD’s fair housing unit until July 2025. She was the author of the findings letter against the town housing authority.

"It seems to reflect a complete, brazen disregard for foundational civil rights laws," Gaige said.

"The letter is self-explanatory, and HUD’s use of the terms ‘rescission’ and ‘compliance’ clearly indicate what the housing authority has always contended: the authority scrupulously adhered to fair housing provisions and all other applicable laws and regulations," said Michael Venditto, an attorney for the town housing authority, in a statement.

Venditto, a former Republican state senator, said the housing authority did not reach out to HUD to ask it to withdraw the letter.

The findings letter from 2024 wasn’t triggered by a complaint and relied on "regulations purporting to prohibit discrimination effects," wrote Andrew Hill, currently HUD’s director of compliance and disability rights.

"The department must conserve its limited enforcement resources by enforcing regulations consistent with the best interpretation of the governing statutes and within the authority vested in the executive branch by the Constitution and as authorized by Congress," Hill wrote.

Newsday on Aug. 9 published an investigation into the town housing authority that included the case of Tamara Bennett-Bryant, a Black, deaf mother who applied to live in one of the authority’s 1,300 units in December 2016. Bennett-Bryant, 48, has been on the waiting list for housing for nearly a decade.

Part of the story about Bennett-Bryant’s yearslong wait was HUD’s determination that the town’s housing authority used an unlawful point system to curate its waitlist, "systematically" denying housing to disabled people and facilitated "acute racial segregation."

"I'm disappointed by HUD’s decision, but I’m not giving up," Bennett-Bryant said in an email. "I will continue to fight for my civil rights and for the rights of people with disabilities."

Most of Hempstead Town's public housing, according to HUD, is intended to be equally for the elderly and disabled persons of working age.

The point system though gave 3 points to seniors, but none for people with disabilities. Those in the villages of Hempstead, Rockville Centre and Freeport, with substantial populations of people of color, received 1 residency point while those in the rest of the town received 2 points. The result was it was nearly impossible for working-aged disabled people to obtain public housing, and furthered the racial segregation, according to HUD's 2024 findings.

"I have never witnessed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issue a letter documenting such a willful and significant departure from fair housing laws," said State Sen. Siela Bynoe (D-Westbury).

Bynoe, who represents much of the Town of Hempstead, previously led the Town of Huntington Housing Authority for a dozen years and served as the deputy executive director for the North Hempstead Housing Authority.

"To add insult to injury, after the housing authority’s leadership refused to accept responsibility for these transgressions, the Trump administration — guided by a faulty moral compass — chose to absolve the violators," Bynoe continued. "Let’s make no mistake about it: The decision of the housing authority’s leadership continues to inflict real and irreparable harm on countless families."

Fair housing watchers on Long Island expressed shock at HUD’s 2024 findings, with several saying they’d never seen such a rebuke of a local housing authority’s practices.

In response to HUD's withdrawal, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said her "constituents in Hempstead deserve answers."

"HUD’s abrupt decision to withdraw its findings is puzzling and concerning," Gillibrand said in a statement. "I am calling on agency leadership to fully explain their reasoning."

U.S. Rep. Laura Gillen (D-Rockville Centre), a former Hempstead Town supervisor, called for HUD to be "transparent about why it contradicted its own prior findings."

"I’m deeply concerned by HUD’s sudden and seemingly arbitrary rescission of its findings of the Town of Hempstead Housing Authority’s discrimination despite the abundant evidence supporting those findings," Gillen said in a statement.

Also disturbing, Gillen said, was HUD's claim that its "flip-flop" is not subject to judicial review.

HUD had the ability to refer its 2024 investigatory findings — which came in the final days of the Biden administration — to the U.S. Department of Justice. It also could have withheld taxpayer money from the housing authority.

A spokesperson for the White House referred questions to HUD.

A HUD spokesperson declined to comment.

"Typical of the Trump administration, when it comes to enforcing fairness in housing for seniors and people with disabilities, their approach is to stick their heads in the sand," James Martin, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), said in a statement.

Last year, Gaige filed a whistleblower report alleging HUD’s actions violate its responsibility to enforce fair housing laws. Other former HUD staffers filed a lawsuit against HUD in September that included claiming agency leaders planning to eliminate the Office of Fair Housing out of "open hostility" toward civil rights enforcement.

"There is no clearer example of how this administration is failing regular folks than what has happened with the Town of Hempstead Housing Authority," said Erik Heins, HUD’s former deputy assistant general counsel for fair housing enforcement. 

Since Trump's second term, HUD has focused its announced discrimination cases against housing authorities that provide preferences for Black and Hispanic applicants and not their white counterparts, such as Boston's "DEI" policies, Minneapolis' "radicalized housing plans" and Washington state's "racial equity strategy."

"Under President Trump’s leadership, HUD will vigorously enforce the Fair Housing Act and ensure all Americans have an equal shot at the American dream," HUD Secretary Scott Turner said when announcing the Washington state probe in March.

Both HUD and the housing authority confirmed the federal agency withdrew its investigation findings.

A spokesman for the Town of Hempstead, Brian Devine, provided a copy of Hill’s letter to Newsday. Devine did not make Supervisor John Ferretti available for an interview or provide a comment on his behalf.

HUD had issued this 'Letter of Findings of Noncompliance' to Hempstead