Undocumented immigrants not eligible for housing assistance: NPR

Tens of thousands of poor children – all American citizens or legal residents – could lose their homes under a new rule proposed today by the Trump administration.

The rule is to prevent people who are illegally in the country from receiving federal housing assistance, which, according to the administration, should only be used to help legal residents or citizens.

But the proposal targets 25,000 families who now benefit from this aid because they have a "mixed" status, which means that at least one family member is undocumented while the others are citizens or legal residents. These families are now paying higher rents to account for their mixed status.

Under the new rule, these families would lose all their housing benefits, such as vouchers and social housing.

An impact analysis by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which proposed the rule, acknowledges that the change could have a devastating impact. It is said that 108,000 people would be affected. About 70% of them are citizens or legal residents and three quarters of them – 55,000 – are children.

Diane Yentel, President and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, described the proposal as cruel. "His cruelty is really breathtaking and would cause real harm to children and families and for what?" Yentel notes that the particularly frank analysis of HUD concludes that the change would bring little benefit to other low-income families waiting for help.

The analysis, prepared by the career staff, indicates that the agency assumes that some of the affected families would separate because the ineligible family member would be asked to leave so that the rest of the family could always receive help. But it is said that most families would probably leave their subsidized homes.

"HUD expects that the fear of family separation will lead to a rapid evacuation of most mixed households, whether this fear is justified or not," the agency said.

He admits that not all families would leave freely. The agency estimates that she should spend between three and four million dollars in eviction costs, "for households that need a more rigorous enforcement of regulations."

The proposed rule change is part of the Trump administration's changes to immigrant targets and restricts public assistance of all kinds. Kristen Clarke, chair of the Committee of Lawyers for Civil Rights under the law, called the proposal "as mean and irrational as the other anti-immigrant political positions of the Trump administration".

But HUD Secretary General Ben Carson described the proposed change as a way to help low-income Americans who need housing assistance. "Our country is facing problems of affordable housing and hundreds of thousands of citizens have been waiting for many years on waiting lists for housing assistance," he tweeted last month.

Housing advocates doubt that families waiting for help would benefit. And the HUD analysis seems to corroborate that. He notes that mixed families generally receive lower subsidies and would probably be replaced by families in need of higher subsidies. "The average income of a mixed household is $ 18,000," says the analysis, "and the average income of an unmixed household is $ 14,000, the difference is 4,000 On average, the subsidy would increase by 30% of the decline in household income, or $ 1,200. "

HUD estimates that it would cost the government up to $ 227 million a year, a sum that Congress should allocate, which, according to the agency, is unlikely.

Instead, he predicts a reduction in housing assistance as a whole.

"Another scenario, and perhaps most likely, would be that HUD should reduce the quantity and quality of housing assistance in response to rising costs," says the agency. For social housing, this "would probably have an impact on the quality of the service, for example on the maintenance of the units and possibly on the deterioration of the units, which could lead to a vacancy".

According to the agency, in some cases the proposed rule could lead to further homelessness. "Households may find themselves without temporary shelter if they are not able to find alternative housing, for example in tight housing markets," HUD said. The cost of homelessness is estimated at between $ 20,000 and $ 50,000 per year per individual.

The analysis raises the possibility of alternative rule changes that could mitigate the impact on poor families. One would be to accommodate all mixed families receiving help and apply the rule in the future. Another possibility would be to apply the rule only to households in which the tenant has no papers. According to HUD, "this would probably limit the negative impact of the transition on eligible children".

The administration accepts public comments on the proposed rule until July 9th.