HUD Is Targeting Federal Housing Assistance for Families With Mixed Immigration Status

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is proposing a rule that would make it much harder for families with mixed immigration status to receive federal housing assistance.

Under the new rule, local housing authorities, including public housing agencies or property owners, would be required to report undocumented immigrants to the Department of Homeland Security. It would also require every resident of a household receiving HUD funding to prove their citizenship or eligibility status.

The rule is the latest part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, and has been expected since last year. In an opinion column in The Washington Post on Wednesday, HUD Secretary Scott Turner said that around 24,000 residents in HUD-subsidized housing could be affected by the change.

“The proposed rule demands eligibility documentation for every individual living in HUD-funded housing, ending the era of illegal aliens and other ineligible noncitizens exploiting public housing resources,” Turner wrote in the column.

The rule was published in the Federal Register on Friday, and will be open for public comment for 60 days. Housing advocates have been preparing for the possibility that the Trump administration would use HUD for immigration enforcement since taking office, a move that they have called dangerous and one they warned would also lead to citizens being displaced.

Currently, undocumented immigrants are not eligible for federal rent aid but can live with family members who are. The federal subsidies only cover the family members with eligible legal status.

Large groups of people could be displaced by the change. Undocumented immigrants who live with their U.S.-citizen children, for example, would be affected, Shamus Roller, the executive director of the National Housing Law Project, wrote in a statement on Thursday.

HUD acknowledged in the rule that it “would adversely affect some tenants and applicants” who depend on the subsidies.

“The most significant effect of this rulemaking would be to transfer assistance from mixed status families to fully eligible households,” the rule states.

Roller wrote that the rule would mean that more than 100,000 people could get evicted, including 37,000 children, according to estimates by his organization.

“HUD also seeks to enlist housing authorities and owners into immigration enforcement and away from its core mission – providing affordable housing in the midst of a national housing crisis,” Roller wrote.

The administration is required to consider public input before posting the final version of the rule. The rule is similar to one that the Trump administration proposed in its first term, which was not finalized. The Biden administration withdrew it before it went into effect.