The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development published a new rule Thursday requiring residents of federally funded public housing to prove U.S. citizenship or eligible immigration status.
According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research and policy institute, the rule could displace nearly 80,000 people from their homes, including tens of thousands of U.S. citizens who live in mixed-status households.
Since 1995, federal policy has allowed mixed-status families to live together in HUD-funded housing, provided that federal subsidies covered only the household members who were eligible. The new rule changes that arrangement, forcing affected families to choose between remaining together outside of public housing or splitting up their households to preserve access to subsidized units.
Marie Claire Tran-Leung, director of the Evictions Initiative Project and managing attorney at the National Housing Law Project, criticized the change.
“This is tearing apart families and sowing division,” said Tran-Leung.
Supporters of the rule argue that federally subsidized housing, funded by taxpayers, should be reserved for citizens and those with legal status to live in the country. Critics counter that the policy will uproot tens of thousands of American citizens who happen to share a household with family members who lack legal status, even though those citizens have not violated any law themselves.
The rule marks a significant shift in how HUD administers housing assistance to mixed-status families, a policy that has been in place for roughly three decades.
