This week the Trump administration moved toward a dramatic change in policy governing public and subsidized housing. The public comment period closed on the rule proposed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to reserve housing assistance to American citizens — to “prohibit…making financial assistance available to persons other than United States citizens…in HUD’s public and specified assisted housing programs.”
It could lead to the eviction of an estimated more than 20,000 public and subsidized housing residents who took advantage of a loophole in the law restricting public assistance to citizens. Sparks could fly, à la ICE in Minneapolis, if illegal immigrants and their possessions are thrown into the street.
HUD is not wrong that lax enforcement has opened the apartment door for the undocumented. But cracking down on illegals, given their small number, is far less important than another new HUD initiative that could change the character of “the projects” for citizens who have been trapped there in poverty.
There’s no doubt that a legal loophole has allowed illegal immigrants to enter public housing, notwithstanding long waiting lists. Here’s how it worked: A legal immigrant can advance off a long waiting list to get into public housing and then invite undocumented family members to join him or her in a “mixed household,” so long as they pay rent based on their income — which they must, in theory, report.
Hellbound and Down 