Millions At Risk Of Losing Housing Benefits Under Draft HUD Rule Changes
A slate of possible new federal housing assistance rules could require household members to be employed, restrict federal housing aid to no more than two years and strip families of aid if all household members can't prove they are citizens or in the process of becoming citizens.
The draft changes, if implemented by the Trump administration, would cause some 4 million people to lose housing assistance, according to ProPublica, which obtained drafts of two unpublished rules by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. They would build on President Donald Trump's attempts to restrict federal housing assistance in his first term, according to the report.
The unpublished rule changes appear to build on the president's effort to cut the budget for public housing, housing vouchers and other rental assistance by 43%. Federal housing assistance programs aid more than 8 million people to cover the costs of rentals in the private market. The average family living in public housing or receiving vouchers makes less than $20K annually, according to ProPublica.
The draft rules have housing advocates sounding the alarm about the potential economic impact.
“These are rules that are going to cause an enormous amount of hardship for millions of people in communities across the country,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Director of Housing Will Fischer told ProPublica.
Under the proposed rules, most adult household members, including both parents, could be required to work up to 40 hours a week. The HUD draft wouldn't mandate work requirements universally but instead allow local housing authorities and landlords to implement new restrictions through various housing aid programs. The move would likely be adopted by 750 public housing authorities and 3,500 landlords, according to ProPublica, citing a HUD projection.
HUD has long tested a version of the work requirement under its Move to Work demonstration program, which allows a subset of public housing authorities the ability to establish work requirements, according to the Urban Institute. Seventeen housing authorities have since instated some work requirements, including Atlanta Housing, the Chicago Housing Authority and the Philadelphia Housing Authority, according to Balletpedia.
Another potential rule change would forbid most households with mixed citizenship status from receiving housing assistance. Currently, the government prorates housing assistance to family members of a household with provable U.S. citizenship status.
It is a move that could impact 20,000 mixed-status families now on housing assistance. Many of those families reside in California, Texas and New York, according to the HUD analysis obtained by ProPublica.
While HUD says the new rules would promote economic self-sufficiency and free up subsidized housing for millions of people, housing advocates who spoke to ProPublica say the opposite is likely to occur.
“It’s disguised as work requirements and term limits, but in reality it’s a way to strip families of their benefits,” Deborah Thrope, deputy director of the National Housing Law Project, told the publication.
ProPublica reported that if or when HUD publishes the proposed rules, they would be vetted through public comment before adoption. This process could drag on for months or years.
