Dive Brief:
- HUD announced Friday that state and local housing agencies must verify the immigration status and eligibility of nearly 200,000 tenants in HUD-supported housing within 30 days, or face sanctions.
- In a news release, the agency claims its audit with the Department of Homeland Security of HUD-funded housing nationwide identified tenants requiring eligibility verification, as well as nearly 25,000 deceased tenants and nearly 6,000 “ineligible non-American tenants.”
- Public housing authorities and owners must review the new Enterprise Income Verification-SAVE Tenant Match Report to verify that they have accurately reported individuals’ citizenship or immigration status and make corrections as needed, HUD Assistant Secretary of Public and Indian Housing Benjamin Hobbs said in a letter Thursday.
Dive Insight:
In March 2025, HUD Secretary Scott Turner and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem signed the American Housing Programs for American Citizens memorandum of understanding to “end the wasteful misappropriation of taxpayer dollars to benefit illegal aliens instead of American citizens,” and the agencies compared data to identify discrepancies or cases requiring additional verification.
The new report compares citizenship and immigration status reported by public housing agencies on the HUD-50058 with immigration status information returned by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services through the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system. The underlying legal requirements have not changed, though: Public housing agencies had previously been required to verify citizenship or eligible immigration status prior to admission and to maintain documentation supporting their eligibility determinations.
Inclusion in the EIV-SAVE Tenant Match Report does not automatically mean that an individual is ineligible for HUD assistance, the agency said, but rather that additional information may be required to classify their immigration status. For each individual flagged, housing authorities should confirm that:
- The PHA has sought additional verification from SAVE to verify eligible immigration status.
- The PHA has retained documentation in the tenant file that confirms the individual’s citizenship or eligible immigration status.
- The PHA has correctly coded the individual on the HUD-50058.
Compliance with the new report will be monitored, Hobbs said in the letter, and public housing authorities that fail to use EIV reports may be subject to sanctions such as a corrective action order, reimbursement from non-HUD sources, withheld or reduced funding or any other available corrective action the agency deems necessary.
HUD’s announcement follows a letter it sent to public housing authorities and owners on Dec. 16, reminding them of their legal obligation to verify tenants’ citizenship and immigration status prior to admission to HUD-assisted housing, per Section 214 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1980 and President Donald Trump’s executive order Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders.
The agency will recapture funding for payments made on behalf of ineligible and deceased tenants, according to HUD.
“We will leave no stone unturned,” said Turner in the release. “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.”
High housing costs are an ongoing burden for millions of families in the U.S., and this action isn’t likely to help, said Protecting Immigrant Families Coalition’s Executive Director Adriana Cadena in a statement shared with Multifamily Dive.
“The administration should be working to close the gap between housing costs and wages,” Cadena said in the statement. “Instead, they’re blaming immigrants and shifting costs to local communities and states.”
Click here to sign up to receive multifamily and apartment news like this article in your inbox every weekday.
