Federal Proposal Would Ban Undocumented Immigrants from Public Housing. What Would the Impact Be in NYC?

Almost 3,000 city households in federally subsidized housing, including Section 8 and NYCHA, have members with mixed immigration statuses who would be impacted by the change, advocates said.

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At the end of last week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a rule that, if enacted, would ban families with mixed immigration statuses from living in federally subsidized housing.

The rule would “require the verification of U.S. citizenship or the eligible immigration status of all applicants and recipients of assistance under a covered program regardless of age”—what advocates say would impact thousands of New York City families who use Section 8 vouchers, or live in public housing at The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA).  

Eligibility for federal housing assistance is already limited to U.S. citizens and non-citizens with a qualifying immigration status (such as lawful permanent resident, refugee or asylee).

Housing subsidies only cover the household members who are eligible, meaning mixed-status families pay a higher rent—also known as a prorated assistance—that takes any ineligible tenants into account.

But HUD called the current policy a “loophole” the federal government wants to close, and comes as President Donald Trump continues to wage an aggressive immigration crackdown. The administration proposed a similar rule banning mixed-status families during Trump’s first term, though President Joe Biden later withdrew it. 

“Mixed Status families are already paying their fair share and are receiving prorated benefits under strict eligibility requirements,” New York Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez said in a statement in response to HUD’s latest proposal. “This is a cruel and inhumane policy that seeks to force families into the impossible choice between family separation and homelessness. It is designed to terrorize immigrant communities, plain and simple.”

Around 20,000 families nationwide, the vast majority of them people of color, could lose assistance if the rule is implemented, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). The impact would be felt particularly hard in New York City and State, which HUD says is home to approximately 13 percent of mixed-status households getting federal housing subsidies.

“In New York state, there are a total of 498,440 households currently receiving federal rental assistance, an estimated 2,540 mixed-status families who would be prohibited from receiving assistance, and 914,060 individual citizens who would be subject to new red tape, even though they have already been found to be eligible for assistance,” said Sonya Acosta, a senior policy analyst with the housing and income security team at CBPP.

New York state has the third-highest number of mixed-status households in public housing after California and Texas, explained Francisca Fajana, director of racial justice strategy with Latino Justice PRLDEF, a national civil rights organization.

According to Alex MacDougall, an attorney in the public housing unit at the Legal Aid Society, almost 3,000 city households would be at risk, impacting over 11,000 people, including 5,000 children, with an average household income of $26,000.

If implemented, advocates warned, families will have to choose between giving up affordable housing or separating. “Many households will not even have the option to separate to save their housing because the only eligible family members are minor children, forcing the entire family into housing insecurity,” MacDougall said.

NYCHA, the largest public housing agency in the country, said that it was reviewing the proposal, but didn’t provide estimates on how many of its households could be impacted. The Housing Authority “is bound by current requirements set by HUD, which will remain in place unless there are modifications issued in a final rule,” a spokesperson said in a statement via email. 

Because households must declare their citizenship or eligible immigration status when applying, HUD already has information on the immigration status of households receiving federal housing benefits, the spokesperson reiterated.

“This administration is using immigrants as a scapegoat to distract from their failure to invest in affordable housing,” Congresswoman Velázquez said in a statement.

Local advocates and civil defenders also pushed back against the federal government’s false assertion that housing authorities are are providing subsidies to undocumented immigrants. In a Washington Post opinion piece last week, HUD Secretary Scott Turner said the proposed rule would end “the era of illegal aliens and other ineligible noncitizens exploiting public housing resources.”

“This is simply untrue,” explained Anna Luft, project director of the New York Legal Assistance Group’s Public Housing Justice Project. “NYCHA, along with other housing authorities, already have a process in place to verify tenants’ immigration status to confirm who qualifies for either HUD-funded rent subsidies or to pay prorated—essentially market-rate—rent as part of a mixed-status living arrangement.”

While advocates worry about the possibility of future evictions, they’re also urging people not to panic, since the rule is still only a proposal. 

The public has 60 days, until April 21, to comment on it. A similar proposal during Trump’s first term—which ultimately never took effect—garnered some 30,000 public comments, more than 95 percent of them in opposition to the change, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. 

“For the time being … the existing laws around prorated assistance remain unchanged as it applies to people in mixed-status households,” Luft said.

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