The Министерство жилищного строительства и городского развития (HUD) has ordered public housing authorities and property owners participating in federal housing programs to verify tenant eligibility as it relates issues including undocumented immigration.
Секретарь HUD Скотт Тернер said the directive is part of a broader effort to review eligibility and compliance in HUD-assisted housing.
“We will leave no stone unturned,” Turner said. “We are proud to collaborate with DHS to execute on the President’s agenda of rooting out abuse of taxpayer-funded resources. Ineligible non-citizens have no place to receive welfare benefits. With this new directive and audit, HUD is putting new processes in place to safeguard taxpayer resources and put the American people first.”
Agencies have been ordered to take corrective action within 30 days.
Immigration status will be verified
The directive follows a letter HUD sent last month reminding housing authorities and property owners of their legal obligations under Section 214 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1980 — and President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14218.
Executive Order 14218 directs agencies to verify citizenship and immigration status before admission to federally assisted housing.
The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities — an organization representing roughly 40% of nationwide public housing nationwide — told Нью-Йорк Таймс that public housing authorities “follow federal regulations and guidance from the federal government.”
There are more than 2.2 million residents in public housing nationwide.
Turner and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem signed a memorandum of understanding early last year outlining cooperation between HUD and the Министерство внутренней безопасности on eligibility verification.
Under the agreement, HUD and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services uploaded tenant data from Section 8 and Section 9 programs into its database, officials said.
According to HUD officials, a joint HUD-DHS audit identified nearly 200,000 tenants whose eligibility requires verification — with roughly 25,000 deceased tenants listed in records and nearly 6,000 noncitizen tenants deemed ineligible.
Agencies that fail to comply could face sanctions, and HUD said it will seek to recover payments it deems to have been made on behalf of ineligible or deceased tenants.
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