Under a new rule proposed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), citizens and legal immigrants in public or subsidized housing may be evicted if they have an undocumented family member living with them.
At present undocumented immigrants do not qualify for housing benefits but current rules allow them to live with their families who do qualify.
State government founded that out of 25,000 families in public housing with the mixed-status meaning one family member is a citizen, legal permanent resident, or refugee and another member is undocumented.
As per the current law, a family needs to declare the number of family members who are eligible or ineligible for the subsidies. If an undocumented family member lives in public housing with the eligible applicant, then the family only receives partial subsidies, which cover only the family members who are eligible citizens or qualifying immigrants and current law ensures that the undocumented family members do not receive any public housing assistance benefit. Because of these strict guidelines, mixed-status families usually end up paying close to market-rate for rent.
HUD’s has proposed the regulation if any family receiving a public housing benefit or subsidy, including Section 8 vouchers, would automatically be ineligible for any housing benefit if even one member of their family living in the house is undocumented. As per the new system, every family member’s immigration status would be screened through the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system if they are under the age of 62 and currently live in subsidized housing.
This new rule may affect over 30,000 people who are living in mixed-status as families and currently receive federal housing benefits. Those families would have to choose between eviction and breaking up the family. This puts at risk vulnerable Americans and immigrants who rely on these subsidies for their housing.
HUD said that this evictions will help to reduce wait-lists for public housing, but many low-income housing advocates disagree. Very few, if any, apartments would open because many mixed-status families will opt to split up rather than lose their benefits completely and it also
This is a mean-spirited attempt at addressing major issues with public housing, including long wait-lists and substandard housing conditions. In New York alone there are currently 209,180 people on line for public housing benefits, with an additional 150,000 on line for Section 8 housing.
HUD’s proposed regulation has been sent to Congress for a 15 day review period before it is published for a 60 day public comment period.
