The Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a Dear Colleague letter on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, urging colleges and universities to end affinity and multicultural housing, stating that such housing violates the Fair Housing Act.

HUD Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Craig Trainor authored the letter, which stated that the department "will no longer tolerate the unlawful racial discrimination in university housing that has gone on for far too long in this Nation's educational institutions." Trainor described affinity housing as a "disturbing trend" and wrote that HUD plans to "pursue every available remedy to bring discriminatory institutions into compliance," including compensatory and punitive damages, civil penalties, and injunctive relief.

HUD Secretary Scott Turner said in a statement that "Under the discredited idea of DEI, ideologues at our nation's colleges and universities have perpetuated racially discriminatory housing schemes in direct violation of federal civil rights law." Turner added that "Unlawful housing segregation has no place in America and certainly no place in the colleges and schools that hard working Americans send their kids for an education." He also stated, "Under the leadership of President Trump, the Department will ensure that racial discrimination in housing — including in American educational institutions — is consigned to the ash heap of history."

In the letter, Trainor cited the Halisi Scholars Black Living-Learning Community, which California State University, Los Angeles, opened in 2016. The university's website states the community is for "students who are a part of or interested in issues of concern to the Black community," and notes it is open to students of all backgrounds. Trainor also referenced a 2016 photo on the University of California, Berkeley, housing website, which featured "a picture of black students" alongside the statement: "I enjoy being around peers who look like me." Trainor wrote in the letter, "The outrage that would follow from pairing the same statement with a picture of white students in a dormitory is not difficult to imagine." He continued, "And for good reason: decent Americans will not tolerate the morally contemptible project that is race segregation—and neither does federal law." Trainor added, "Yet educational institutions persist and deploy dissembling terminology to facilitate this conduct." He additionally cited Wesleyan University's 1996 decision to allow the campus's Malcolm X house to remain all black.

Michael Pillera, director of the educational opportunities project at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said the Dear Colleague letter contains "misrepresentations and broad statements that appear pretty clearly aimed at scaring colleges into ceasing engaging in lawful activity." Pillera added, "Just because [housing has] a theme or a purpose doesn't make it unlawful if it is open to everyone." He also stated, "This letter seems to imply that there's this broad world of race-exclusive housing on campuses, which I think anyone who's ever been on a college campus knows doesn't exist." Pillera said the letter feels like "Groundhog's Day" and expects it will face a similar fate to previous guidance.

Trainor posted the letter on LinkedIn on Thursday, June 25, writing, "The educational-industrial complex would do well to remember: I have not gone away." He also said, "The neo-segregationists who argue in favor of racially segregated housing in schools now are as morally bankrupt as the segregationists who argued in favor or racially segregated schools then." Trainor previously wrote a Dear Colleague letter for the Education Department on February 14, 2025, which two federal courts blocked two months after its issuance. As of Thursday afternoon, HUD had not posted the Dear Colleague letter to its website.

Many colleges offer thematic housing, such as honors houses, language houses, or cultural houses, which allows students to live, work, and learn alongside peers with similar interests or identities. In most cases, students apply for these residences, and living in them is optional. A 2019 study by the National Association of Scholars found that 43% of 173 colleges surveyed offered "segregated residential arrangements." The Association of College and University Housing Officers–International stated it is aware of the letter and is committed to supporting its members.