The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is planning to ask public housing agencies (PHAs) to report the immigration status of public housing residents and voucher holders within 30 days. If the PHAs don’t—or can’t—comply, HUD has threatened to revoke their federal funding and eligibility. The language of this announcement suggests the directive is part of the federal administration’s efforts to exclude undocumented immigrants from public benefits programs—even though this is already the case for HUD assistance and most other benefits.
Public housing and voucher programs provide subsidized housing for an estimated 10 million people in households with low incomes, many of whom are families with children (56 percent), people with disabilities (25 percent), and seniors (21 percent). They provide a critical source of subsidized housing amid a worsening national housing crisis.
US citizens and certain groups of residents with lawful immigration status are eligible to receive housing assistance. If eligible individuals are part of a mixed-status family (in which members have different immigration statuses—one or more are citizens or lawful permanent residents, and usually one or more are undocumented), they can still receive housing assistance prorated to the number of eligible individuals. But mixed-status families make up fewer than 1 percent of all households receiving assistance (or 25,000 households according to HUD’s 2019 estimate).
HUD’s data request will have dire consequences for this small group of families and puts millions of other households at risk of losing their assistance. This could fuel the already acute affordability crisis.
How the data request will affect the housing stability of mixed-status families
Even though mixed-status families make up such a small share of recipients, HUD has already targeted these families with a series of other actions and proposals. The data request follows HUD’s March agreement with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to share its resident data. With this agreement in place, DHS will have direct access to any data related to immigration status that HUD acquires from PHAs and will be poised to target undocumented family members for detention and deportation. A proposed rule change was posted to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in July that resembles a 2019 proposal to deny eligibility for housing assistance to mixed-status families.
There is evidence that similar policies and rhetoric—including the first Trump administration’s revisions to the “public charge” rule, and more recently, the Trump administration’s threats of sweeping immigration enforcement upon election for a second term—have caused chilling effects for immigrants and mixed-status families, some of whom have avoided benefits programs they needed and were eligible for. If mixed-status families fear surveillance, immigration enforcement, and family separation as a result of their housing assistance, they may leave their homes or self-disqualify, even if they have nowhere else to go. The resulting housing instability and potential family separation would worsen outcomes for mixed-status families, including by causing financial hardship, psychological distress, disruptions to education, and harms to children’s health and development.
HUD’s data request will also jeopardize federally assisted housing programs and recipients more broadly
The country has an estimated affordable housing shortage of 7.1 million units, yet the presidential budget for fiscal year 2026 proposed substantially cutting funding for federal assisted housing programs. Although the most recent budget proposed by the Senate rejected most of these major cuts to housing assistance, the data request demonstrates that HUD could still leverage its enforcement authority to undermine housing assistance programs in other ways.
By threatening PHAs’ federal funding, HUD will put millions of other households at risk of losing their assistance. PHAs may face substantial barriers around data capacity, contacting residents, and costs—all on an unrealistic 30-day timeline. Even US citizens who receive assistance may not have the documentation available to prove citizenship or legal residency.
Evidence shows the US needs more, not less, federal housing assistance to meet affordable housing needs
Only one in four eligible households receives the assistance they need. Across the nation, public housing stock is aging and often in poor repair, and there has been no federal funding to build new properties in a generation. Waiting lists for assistance are sometimes decades long. Mixed-status families make up only a small proportion of the current resident population, and their presence has little effect on the overall shortages. Depriving 25,000 mixed-status families of federal housing assistance will only place these households at risk of housing instability, doing nothing to benefit other households in need of assistance.
Instead of cutting assistance and scapegoating mixed-status families, deeper investments and innovative solutions are needed to protect assisted housing for all. Drawing on our analysis of public housing policy and recommendations to protect the future of public housing, to help communities meet the needs of households with low incomes, federal programs could provide more
- stable and adequate operations funding to continue existing programs,
- capital funding to support renovation of their existing housing stock (the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials estimated [PDF] a $90 billion backlog in 2024), new housing construction, and replacement of the 240,000 units beneath the Faircloth limit [PDF] that were previously demolished
- funding, or alternative policies like universal vouchers, to expand access to assistance for the millions of eligible and waitlisted households among the over 21 million households who were rent burdened in 2023, and
- flexibility to convert vouchers through programs that protect long-term affordability and residents’ rights.
Yet without further federal investment, state and local solutions will be even more critical to protect assisted housing. PHAs are already using complex strategies to finance public housing redevelopment and close the gap from federal underfunding. Innovative state and local efforts to address affordable and public housing needs, like Portland’s affordable housing bonds and city-funded voucher program, or New York City’s Public Housing Preservation Trust, demonstrate the potential of such initiatives.
Even so, with the administration’s efforts to cut federal funding, via congressional action or HUD’s data request enforcement, the survival of PHAs is at risk. A recent House bill proposed by Representative Juan Vargas (D-CA) would prevent HUD from sharing immigration data for enforcement. Without a successful legal challenge—through such legislation or in the courts—and without sustained federal funding, there will likely be devastating consequences for residents and their housing.
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