New Trump Rule Threatens Immigrant Families With Separation or Homelessness

The Trump administration is preparing to kick nearly 80,000 people, about half of them children, off federal housing assistance over their family’s immigration status, threatening to drive thousands into homelessness. 

On Thursday, the Department of Housing and Urban Development published a final rule that’s on track to effectively bar families of mixed immigration status from receiving most federal housing assistance, which allow people to receive housing vouchers to reside in privately owned rental homes or in government-owned or -assisted public housing units.  

As it stands, undocumented immigrants and temporary non-residents in the United States already are barred from personally receiving most forms of federal housing assistance. But if some members of the family are eligible, the eligible members can receive prorated assistance to help cover their housing, and the non-eligible family member can live with them.

The new rule, which goes into effect in mid-December, would disqualify an entire family if one member is ineligible after a temporary grace period, forcing them to choose between separation and eviction. 

Families are “going to be faced with the impossible choice of deciding whether they want to split up so that some people can stay housed, or to stay together and risk homelessness and eviction,” said Marie Claire Tran-Leung, Evictions Initiative Project director at the National Housing Law Project. 

Children will bear a disproportionate burden, Tran-Leung said. Of the nearly 80,000 people who could be affected, according to estimates from Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, nearly 37,000 are children.

Many families have one parent who doesn’t qualify, one parent who’s a citizen or otherwise eligible immigrant — i.e. a permanent resident — and kids who hold U.S. citizenship. According to Tran-Leung, the typical mixed-status family in HUD housing is a family of four that fits that profile.

This rule is “going to tear families apart and take adults away from their children,” said Deborah Thrope, chief program officer at the National Housing Law Project.

Beyond potentially leaving tens of thousands of families and children homeless or separated, the change could cost the already beleaguered federal housing agency hundreds of millions of dollars, housing experts told The Intercept. This would likely worsen conditions across the board for the roughly 9 million people in federal housing, who would now be subject to onerous documentation requirements. 

“The impacts are not just limited to mixed-status families,” said Renee Williams, senior advisor for public policy at the National Low Income Housing Coalition. 

Currently, both U.S. citizens and non-citizens are required to submit a declaration under penalty of perjury attesting that their citizenship or immigration status makes them eligible for housing assistance. Non-citizens under age 62 must submit a document that proves their immigration status. And additional documentation can be requested by local housing agencies or landlords. 

The rule change would upend the current system. U.S. citizens would have to go through the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program, also known as SAVE, to verify their eligibility status.

“It’s a system that hasn’t been used to verify citizenship before but now is because of the work that DHS and DOGE did together on a very expedited timeline at the beginning of the Trump administration,” said Tran-Leung. “This causes a lot of concern for us about the very significant risks of residents who are citizens being caught up in verification issues and potentially losing their housing.”

If SAVE cannot verify someone’s eligibility, the new rule requires the person to provide documentation proving their status. The rule would give families 30 days to obtain evidence of immigration status, in addition to the initial 30-day grace period where families can receive pro-rated assistance before having to go through verification.

Tran-Leung and other experts worry that the new documentation requirements could make it harder for low-income tenants — particularly older immigrants over the age of 62, who were previously exempted from verification requirements — to access the program.

Older people, low-income people, and people who’ve experienced homelessness are far more likely to lack access to proof of citizenship such as a passport, valid photo ID, or birth certificate. That means an untold number of the millions of eligible people in federal housing programs could lose assistance just for lack of documentation. 

“For folks who may not have easy documentation accessible, who may not have access to a birth certificate, who may not have access to a passport, we’re really worried,” said Williams. 

The changes would also burden housing agencies financially by requiring their staff to review documents that were previously not required by federal law.

It is unclear just how expensive these additional administrative costs will be for HUD. But an analysis from HUD itself found that because mixed-status families receive assistance prorated, it would cost the federal government $300 million in additional funds to serve the same number of families as it does now.

For example, a family of four with one ineligible member currently receives 75% of a full household subsidy. A family of four that is not mixed status receives 100% of the subsidy, making it more expensive for the agency to house the non-mixed-status family even though the two families have the same number of people.

“At the same time, HUD is requesting fewer funds from Congress to end homelessness,” said Kayla Blackwell, senior housing policy analyst at the National Low Income Housing Coalition. President Donald Trump recently proposed cutting $3.8 billion from the agency’s affordable housing, homelessness, and community development programs.  

HUD Secretary Scott Turner has justified the rule by claiming that mixed-status families are “pushing aside hardworking U.S. citizens” for housing. But experts said the changes will make the system worse for everyone.

“This is scapegoating immigrant families, and HUD is doing less,” said Blackwell. 

For the families who either are forced out of the program or leave willingly due to fears around their status, the road ahead is difficult. The majority of mixed-status families live in California, Texas, and New York, where the cost of living can be incredibly high.

“It’s going to be really difficult, I think, for families to be able to stay in their communities and not be displaced if they lose their access to HUD assistance,” said Blackwell.