HUD Threatens Funding For Housing Authorities That Don't Share Tenants' Immigration Status
The Trump administration’s Department of Housing and Urban Development is planning to give public housing authorities across the country 30 days to identify and report immigrant tenants lacking permanent legal status who receive public housing assistance — or risk losing federal funding.
HUD is preparing letters to more than 3,000 public housing authorities asking them to send detailed information on tenants whose immigration status is in question, data on tenant statuses across their programs, and documentation about how they follow federal law, Bisnow has confirmed.
The Washington Examiner first reported the plan after reviewing a letter from HUD Secretary Scott Turner that said for entities that don't comply with the information request, it would “leverage all available enforcement actions,” including “examination of HUD funding and/or evaluation of PHA program eligibility.”
The first letter is set to be sent to the D.C. Housing Authority, the Examiner reported. A HUD spokesperson confirmed to Bisnow the Examiner’s story is accurate but didn't provide a copy of the letter.
The DCHA didn't respond to Bisnow's inquiry about whether it has received a letter from the administration or what its policies are surrounding gathering and reporting citizenship status among its residents.
On its website, DCHA’s housing assistance application asks applicants to list the social security numbers of all household members over the age of 6 but doesn't ask for citizenship or immigration information. On its voucher application page, it says applicants for the federally funded program must “qualify based on citizenship or the eligible immigrant status of family members.”
The spotlight on D.C. comes after President Donald Trump this month sent in thousands of National Guard troops and took over the local law enforcement in an effort to “clean up” the city and curb crime. In an executive order this week, Trump directed HUD to investigate DCHA's crime prevention, safety and cleanliness requirements for housing providers.
HUD's latest information request is also part of the Trump administration’s monthslong effort to crack down on delivering federal funds to unauthorized immigrants.
At the end of February, Trump issued an executive order called Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders, in which he directed agencies to “ensure no taxpayer-funded benefits go to unqualified aliens,” to the extent allowed by law.
In response to that executive order, Turner issued a letter in April to stakeholders and grantees informing them that “housing assistance will no longer be granted to illegal aliens or sanctuary cities.”
“The directive reinforces HUD programs are strictly reserved for the American people, eliminating any ambiguity in policy,” the letter says.
The Washington Examiner reported that public housing authorities are required to turn over eligibility information, including citizenship status, to HUD. But the publication cited two anonymous officials at the agency saying a significant number of the authorities either weren't sharing citizenship information with the federal government or weren't collecting it.
There are restrictions on the eligibility of noncitizens to receive public housing assistance under two main laws, one from 1980 and another from 1996. But there are specific designations of individuals without citizenship who can receive certain types of assistance.
The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act says that all noncitizens, save for those deemed “qualified aliens,” are ineligible for federal public benefits, including housing assistance.
Those provisions haven’t been fully implemented, according to a Congressional Research Service report. But Trump’s February executive order said it was an attempt to uphold that law.
