After issuing and then immediately retracting a sweeping reorganization plan earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is once again moving forward with a reorganization of its headquarters and field operational structure.

A notice filed in the Federal Register on Tuesday said the changes would allow HUD to “more efficiently deliver on its mission utilizing current resources.” The proposal, which does not include any office closures or staff relocations, mirrors draft plans previously reported by Scotsman Guide.

HUD first proposed a department-wide reorganization back in April as part of the Trump administration’s discretionary budget request for fiscal year 2027.

Advertisement

“In sum, no immediately quantifiable benefits, and no significant costs or local economic impacts would arise from the reorganization,” stated HUD in this week’s filing, “which maintains the Department’s number of staff and field offices, but simply streamlines and realigns functions for optimal efficiency.”

The proposed shifts are a natural progression from a sharp contraction in department capacity since early 2025, amid aggressive federal workforce reductions by the second Trump administration via deferred resignation programs, mass firings and hiring freezes.

Experts say that has left HUD with dramatically fewer human and institutional resources to implement a landmark bipartisan housing bill that became law last summer — not to mention a varied list of policy directives and reforms requested by the White House in a flurry of executive orders issued over the past 18 months.

Staffing exodus fuels shrinking capacity

Nearly 3 in 10 employees working at the cabinet-level housing agency in 2025 were gone by the end of the year, according to audit findings published last month by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a congressional watchdog group.

More than half of departures had at least one decade of HUD experience, while 40% had two decades or more. Total separations numbered around 3,200.

Amid the exodus in institutional knowledge, HUD-service providers, industry partners and program administrators interviewed by congressional investigators reported a sharp deterioration in the availability and quality of information, operations and public resources.

Now the federal housing regulator is figuring out how to do more with less. Proposals to centralize, consolidate and rename various offices and teams would achieve the stated goals of eliminating redundancies and “increasing flexibility in work processes,” said HUD.

“Certain offices were particularly impacted by these departures, leaving them constrained in the ability to accomplish Departmental goals and objectives,” read Tuesday’s filing in the Federal Register. “The result of these efforts is a proposed large-scale reorganization of the Department.”

The filing contains some lack of clarity concerning implementation of the proposed reorganization. HUD says the reorganization will begin roughly 90 days after the date of the notice in the Federal Register, which in this case was Nov. 10.

However, HUD also said that full implementation of reorganization plans may occur for some offices before the end of fiscal year 2026. Other offices work toward full implementation by the end of the following fiscal year.

Office-specific changes being proposed

HUD did not return a request for comment by time of publication. How reorganization may manifest will differ across departments at the more than 6,000-person agency.

The Government National Mortgage Corp. (“Ginnie Mae”), which guarantees issuers of government-insured mortgage securities, will establish a new division “to coordinate and address the need for greater data and market analysis to aid in data-driven decision-making.” The realignment of current Ginnie Mae branches would coincide with the opening of new branches to focus on budgetary and economic issues.

The Office of the Chief Information Officer, alternatively, “will establish a division for data and super intelligence (SI) under the chief technology officer to ensure HUD is staffing and prioritizing data and SI appropriately,” stated the filing, using President Donald Trump’s preferred term for artificial intelligence (AI).

Meanwhile, HUD has proposed consolidating the office structure of the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity and shifting from a geographic to a function-based model for the single-family division of the Federal Housing Administration.

Th proposal would also eliminate the distinction between headquarters and regional field offices in the Office of General Counsel while retooling reporting structures for some HUD attorneys. The Office of Public and Indian Housing would consolidate and realign operations, merging public housing responsibilities into one office and voucher programs into another.

“Current staffing levels are almost 35% below historic staffing levels and this reorganization will provide HUD with the ability to operate even more effectively at current staffing levels,” said the notice in the Federal Register, “ultimately carrying forward savings from the reduced salaries and expenses of the Department.”