Recently, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposed a new rule in the Federal Register seeking to prevent undocumented immigrants from receiving federal housing assistance. The ostensible motivation behind the proposal, which has been pushed by Trump policy adviser Stephen Miller, is to reduce wait times for housing aid around the country. "We are putting America's most vulnerable first," Secretary Ben Carson said when news of the proposal surfaced in April.
But the effect of the rule, according to HUD's own analysis, would be to evict more than 55,000 children who are in the country legally.
Currently, housing aid is prorated only for eligible members of a family. That means the household receives subsidies only for members who have proved their eligibility; those who declare they are ineligible are excluded from receiving benefits, but can live with the rest of the family in subsidized housing. The new regulation would disqualify the entire family—even those who are United States citizens—if one member is ineligible. The goal appears to be designed to weed out undocumented people, who the agency believes "indirectly receive assistance through the household's income," per HUD's impact analysis.
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