The Department of Housing and Urban Development moved to fire two HUD civil rights attorneys who signed a whistleblower disclosure alleging a pullback in fair housing enforcement at the agency.
Fair housing lawyers Paul Osadebe and Palmer Heenan said they were summoned separately to meetings with HUD operations personnel on Sept. 29. Both were given letters and asked to collect their belongings and leave the building.
Heenan, who is a probationary employee, received a notice saying he was being terminated for misconduct including sharing nonpublic information, according to documents viewed by Bloomberg News. Osadebe was told he was being put on administrative leave and that management was proposing to fire him for for charges that include making statements the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Ashaki Robinson, the president of the union local that represents HUD’s DC-area workers, said she believes the workers were targeted for being whistleblowers. Robinson said the union plans to respond to the proposal to fire Osadebe, and “will invoke arbitration if a decision comes against the employee.” The Federal Unionists Network, a public employee advocacy group, called the move a “stunning act of illegal retaliation.”
“It was entirely related to the whistleblower activity and speaking out for civil rights and for our coworkers, for our union,” says Osadebe, a trial attorney for HUD since March 2021. “There was nothing about performance.”
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