Eight Chicago-based U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development staffers with more than 180 years of service collectively have retired or are retiring later this year as the agency undergoes scrutiny and faces cuts from billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and President Donald Trump.
Jim Cunningham, who oversaw the entire Midwest region from HUD’s Chicago office, is retiring early after nearly 34 years of service. Cunningham told the Tribune he had planned to retire at the end of 2026. Instead, he worked his last day Friday as he said he was concerned he might be terminated given the recent upheaval at HUD and, therefore, lose benefits such as health insurance.
Kimberly Nevels, HUD’s national chief diversity officer, will serve her last day on April 30. Other employees who work in the public housing, multifamily and general counsel divisions are also retiring, including a military veteran who worked at HUD for 18 years and said he was forced to retire early because HUD would not accommodate his disability, and he was unable to return to the office full time. The Trump administration is requiring federal workers to return to in-person work full time.
“I wasn’t quite ready to go,” Cunningham said. “We do great work at HUD and serve a lot of people, so bittersweet is probably the best way I can describe (my retirement).” Other retirees who spoke with the Tribune described their departures similarly.
The employee retirements, celebrated at gatherings March 13, come as at least 20 local HUD workers lost their jobs or received layoff notices last month. A dozen of these employees work in the local HUD Office of Field Policy and Management, which will wipe out the entire local department, apart from managers. Chicago-area housing organizations are also facing funding cuts from HUD, with some recently receiving termination notices for grants while others are in limbo as they wait for overdue contracts or to see what happens with expected awards.
HUD Secretary Scott Turner announced in a video on social media on Feb. 13 that a DOGE task force had launched at HUD. That same week, a document circulated among HUD workers that was reported on by national news outlets and obtained by the Tribune showing HUD’s workforce could be halved. It indicated that the total agency head count as of Jan. 21 was about 8,300, with some departments slated for more drastic staff reductions than others.
HUD did not respond to the Tribune’s questions about if or how the agency plans to fill the gaps in the Chicago office.
Nevels said she has been on paid administrative leave since Jan. 22 after working at the agency for 24 years. She has been in her role as chief diversity officer for just over a year, with the majority of her years spent in HUD’s fair housing office.
“There is just an incredible loss of institutional knowledge happening right now,” Nevels said. “Looking at what is going on, it is clear there is a dismantling of the scaffolding around civil rights and civil rights enforcement.”
In light of Trump’s executive orders to dismantle all federal offices focused on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, HUD said in a statement to the Tribune in January that it was “taking steps to close all agency DEIA offices and end all DEIA-related contracts.” HUD said it could not comment on personnel matters of current or former employees when asked about the status of Nevels’ job.
Patrick Cano is the military veteran who said he is retiring early as HUD will not accommodate his disability. Cano, who said his back problems started during his military service and led to his discharge, said he was offered reasonable accommodations from HUD in the past but was told it was “not an option going forward” under orders from HUD’s Washington headquarters.
Cano worked in HUD’s public housing division, overseeing 15 public housing authorities in Illinois to check for “fraud, waste and abuse” — a nod to DOGE’s agenda. He said working at HUD was his “dream job.” Cano’s official last day is Sept. 30; he took the federal government’s offer of deferred resignation, and he was also eligible for early retirement due to his disability.
“If you would have told me six months ago I would have been retiring today, I would not have believed you,” Cano said. “I figured I would have at least another five years in me, but without the ability to telework and without reasonable accommodation, it makes things really difficult.”
Kasey Lovett, a HUD spokesperson, told the Tribune that HUD follows the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s policies that require federal agencies to “provide reasonable accommodation to qualified employees with disabilities.” She said employees are “encouraged to route conversations and concerns through appropriate channels, such as their supervisor, rather than the Chicago Tribune.”
“It’s always super helpful when employees who are collecting a paycheck from HUD talk to media (without authorization) and bash the organization they are working for while at the same time wanting accommodations,” Lovett said.
Eleny Ladias has served as the division director of public housing for the state of Illinois since 2002, managing a team that oversees all 105 public housing authorities in the state. She had been planning to retire this year due to personal health reasons but pushed up her timeline when the deferred resignation offer came about and because of the stress around the uncertainty at the agency.
Ladias, who was with HUD for over 36 years, said she loved working in public housing because she and her staff had “an impact on so many lives.”
“You are dealing with some of the most vulnerable people in our communities,” Ladias said, “and to house those people and help them out and advocate for the tenants has been something that was near and dear to me.”
John Schneider, who worked at HUD for over 30 years and most recently was a branch chief within HUD’s multifamily division overseeing the construction business at buildings with Federal Housing Administration-backed mortgages, is retiring Thursday. He said he would have liked to stay until later this year but could not risk being terminated. His wife has a pre-existing illness, he said, so he needs his health insurance.
The retirees who spoke with the Tribune said they are worried for the workers who are still with the agency and the people that HUD serves. They fear HUD staff will not be able to keep doing their work if DOGE’s further threatened job cuts materialize.
Mary Watkins was a senior account executive in HUD’s multifamily division and worked at the agency for over 38 years. Like Schneider, she was planning to retire later this year but opted for March 30 given DOGE’s activities within HUD.
“I have worked in seven presidential administrations, and I have never seen anything like this,” Watkins said. “It hurts.”
Cunningham, the former leader of HUD’s Midwest region, said he was in the same boat as other employees who had no information about the restructuring efforts going on at HUD. He said the expected and existing funding and job cuts are already affecting how much work is able to get done.
“It’s just very unsettling to be at HUD right now because no one knows what is going on.”
The post HUD Midwest director, other longtime Chicago staff retiring early amid Trump administration threats, cuts to agency first appeared on Voxtrend News.
