Public housing residents must prove immigration status under new HUD rule

quote:

---

Residents of federally funded public housing will be required to show proof of U.S. citizenship or eligible immigration status under a new rule published Thursday by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The measure could displace nearly 80,000 people, including tens of thousands of citizens in mixed-status families, from their homes, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research and policy institute.

Since 1995, mixed-status families have been permitted to live together in HUD-funded housing as long as federal subsidies covered only eligible household members. The new rule may force these families to decide whether to remain together in nonpublic housing or split up their households.

"This is tearing apart families and sowing division," said Marie Claire Tran-Leung, director of the Evictions Initiative Project and managing attorney at the National Housing Law Project.

The rule's prior status, which allowed mixed-status families to live together, worked well for all parties, Tran-Leung said. Mixed-status households often paid a higher share of rent because their subsidies were prorated, experts say. If those families are forced to leave public housing, HUD will likely face financial shortfalls, Tran-Leung said.

About 20,000 mixed-status families, or 80,000 people, could be affected by the rule, CBPP's data shows. About 37,000 of those are children, mostly U.S. citizens, CBPP said.

The rule is scheduled to take effect on Dec. 14.

"President Trump warned that the days of illegal aliens and ineligible noncitizens exploiting government-funded welfare programs would be over," HUD Secretary Scott Turner said in a statement. "It's unacceptable that America's homeless veterans, disabled, elderly, and victims of domestic violence languish on waitlists while illegals and ineligibles scam our system. American taxpayers will no longer foot the bill. Promises made, promises kept."

Turner's statement said a recent audit identified nearly 200,000 tenants with incomplete or unverified eligibility status. Currently, HUD-funded housing serves only a quarter of eligible households in need.

Families in all 50 states will be affected, with the largest concentration in New York, California and Texas. The rule would impact more than 7,000 mixed-status households in California and 2,500 mixed-status households in New York, according to a coalition of 22 state attorneys general who opposed the rule.

They wrote in an April letter that it "would inflict significant economic costs on the States and exacerbate the affordable housing crisis."

CBS News reached out to housing authorities in California, New York and Texas to learn how the rule would be implemented and enforced locally.

During the first Trump administration in 2019, HUD attempted to revise the longstanding provision, but the proposed change was withdrawn in 2021. In February 2026, the agency reintroduced the proposed rule, drawing more than 11,000 public comments from individuals, advocacy groups and members of Congress during the three-month comment period.

Reactions also came from individual members of the public.

Claire Stanley, a senior living in public housing in Auburn, Washington, wrote: "There is no justification for this rule — it won't save money because the increase in homelessness will cost more than just allowing families to stay together."

Another commenter, Mark Smith of Oconto Falls, Wisconsin, urged in March: "Please withdraw the proposal and think about what Jesus would do."

---